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Nashville, TN

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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 883,348 96.58% 1,066,655 93.01%
Spanish 10,243 1.12% 40,911 3.57%
Other Indo-European* 12,733 1.39% 20,041 1.75%
Asian Language** 6,487 0.71% 13,128 1.14%
Other 1,787 0.20% 6,069 0.53%
Total Population Age 5+ 914,598 100.00% 1,146,804 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 21,025 51.39%
Other Indo-European* 6,270 31.29%
Asian Language** 6,906 52.61%
Other Language 2,490 41.03%
Total 36,691 3.20%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,434 33.53%
Other Indo-European* 3,834 30.11%
Asian Language** 3,545 54.65%
Other Language 455 25.46%
Total 11,268 1.23%

* "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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