St. Clair County

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 45,667 98.22% 59,271 97.86%
Spanish 357 0.77% 855 1.41%
Other Indo-European* 417 0.90% 313 0.52%
Asian Language** 32 0.07% 121 0.20%
Other 20 0.04% 6 0.01%
Total Population Age 5+ 46,493 100.00% 60,566 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 262 30.64%
Other Indo-European* 85 27.16%
Asian Language** 48 39.67%
Other Language 6 100.00%
Total 401 0.66%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 130 36.41%
Other Indo-European* 157 37.65%
Asian Language** 11 34.38%
Other Language 0 -
Total 298 0.64%

* "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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