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Las Cruces, NM

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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 62,052 50.09% 73,554 45.63%
Spanish 59,269 47.84% 84,745 52.58%
Other Indo-European* 1,319 1.06% 1,683 1.04%
Asian Language** 927 0.75% 625 0.39%
Other 313 0.25% 574 0.36%
Total Population Age 5+ 123,880 100.00% 161,181 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 34,901 41.18%
Other Indo-European* 344 20.44%
Asian Language** 274 43.84%
Other Language 155 27.00%
Total 35,674 22.13%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 22,200 37.46%
Other Indo-European* 268 20.32%
Asian Language** 371 40.02%
Other Language 87 27.80%
Total 22,926 18.51%

* "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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