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Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, OH

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LANGUAGE

The Census asks questions about language use at home to locate groups of people who speak a language other than English. Their isolation or integration into a primarily English speaking community can be determined by their ability to speak English proficiently.

Language Spoken at Home, 1990-2000
1990 2000
Number Percent Number Percent
Only English 1,854,768 90.73% 1,901,333 90.41%
Spanish 44,014 2.15% 62,999 3.00%
Other Indo-European* 112,953 5.53% 101,273 4.82%
Asian Language** 12,324 0.60% 17,798 0.85%
Other 20,321 0.99% 19,650 0.93%
Total Population Age 5+ 2,044,380 100.00% 2,103,053 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 24,429 38.78%
Other Indo-European* 37,707 37.23%
Asian Language** 8,440 47.42%
Other Language 5,807 29.55%
Total 76,383 3.63%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 17,276 39.25%
Other Indo-European* 40,438 35.80%
Asian Language** 5,930 48.12%
Other Language 6,383 31.41%
Total 70,027 3.43%

* "Other Indo-European" excludes English and Spanish. "Indo-European" is not synonymous with "European." French, German, Hindi, and Persian are all classified as Indo-European. Hungarian, on the other hand, is lumped into "Other Language."

** "Asian Language" includes languages indigenous to Asia and Pacific islands areas that are not also Indo-European languages. Chinese, Japanese, Telugu, and Hawaiian are all classified here.

Also note that ability to speak English "very well" is based on the self-assessment of those responding to Census questions, not on a test of language ability.

Source: Census 2000 analyzed by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN).

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