Dallas 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 43,180 97.38% 41,878 97.48%
Spanish 538 1.21% 550 1.28%
Other Indo-European* 460 1.04% 337 0.78%
Asian Language** 66 0.15% 124 0.29%
Other 100 0.23% 70 0.16%
Total Population Age 5+ 44,344 100.00% 42,959 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 132 24.00%
Other Indo-European* 66 19.58%
Asian Language** 35 28.23%
Other Language 12 17.14%
Total 245 0.57%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 169 31.41%
Other Indo-European* 138 30.00%
Asian Language** 32 48.48%
Other Language 18 18.00%
Total 357 0.81%

* "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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