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Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI

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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 1,216,966 92.02% 1,252,923 89.65%
Spanish 37,288 2.82% 73,627 5.27%
Other Indo-European* 53,707 4.06% 46,534 3.33%
Asian Language** 11,050 0.84% 19,386 1.39%
Other 3,544 0.27% 5,058 0.36%
Total Population Age 5+ 1,322,555 100.00% 1,397,528 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 34,421 46.75%
Other Indo-European* 14,561 31.29%
Asian Language** 9,521 49.11%
Other Language 1,285 25.41%
Total 59,788 4.28%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 14,837 39.79%
Other Indo-European* 15,790 29.40%
Asian Language** 6,478 58.62%
Other Language 1,070 30.19%
Total 38,175 2.89%

* "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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