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Richmond-Petersburg, VA

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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 767,314 95.47% 866,658 92.98%
Spanish 11,613 1.44% 26,949 2.89%
Other Indo-European* 15,555 1.94% 21,153 2.27%
Asian Language** 7,620 0.95% 13,332 1.43%
Other 1,631 0.20% 3,982 0.43%
Total Population Age 5+ 803,733 100.00% 932,074 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 11,246 41.73%
Other Indo-European* 6,000 28.36%
Asian Language** 6,957 52.18%
Other Language 1,119 28.10%
Total 25,322 2.72%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,591 30.92%
Other Indo-European* 3,916 25.18%
Asian Language** 4,056 53.23%
Other Language 385 23.61%
Total 11,948 1.49%

* "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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