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Racine, 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 150,133 93.04% 160,992 91.63%
Spanish 5,055 3.13% 9,181 5.23%
Other Indo-European* 5,362 3.32% 4,165 2.37%
Asian Language** 518 0.32% 956 0.54%
Other 302 0.19% 413 0.24%
Total Population Age 5+ 161,370 100.00% 175,707 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 4,275 46.56%
Other Indo-European* 1,170 28.09%
Asian Language** 528 55.23%
Other Language 135 32.69%
Total 6,108 3.48%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,959 38.75%
Other Indo-European* 1,502 28.01%
Asian Language** 257 49.61%
Other Language 63 20.86%
Total 3,781 2.34%

* "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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