South Bend, IN

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 213,012 92.95% 225,726 91.44%
Spanish 4,629 2.02% 10,312 4.18%
Other Indo-European* 8,640 3.77% 6,931 2.81%
Asian Language** 1,292 0.56% 2,370 0.96%
Other 1,603 0.70% 1,526 0.62%
Total Population Age 5+ 229,176 100.00% 246,865 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 4,627 44.87%
Other Indo-European* 1,799 25.96%
Asian Language** 1,022 43.12%
Other Language 365 23.92%
Total 7,813 3.16%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,544 33.35%
Other Indo-European* 2,451 28.37%
Asian Language** 553 42.80%
Other Language 550 34.31%
Total 5,098 2.22%

* "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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