Blount 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 35,907 98.17% 44,692 94.37%
Spanish 337 0.92% 2,363 4.99%
Other Indo-European* 288 0.79% 243 0.51%
Asian Language** 44 0.12% 57 0.12%
Other 0 0.00% 5 0.01%
Total Population Age 5+ 36,576 100.00% 47,360 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,396 59.08%
Other Indo-European* 72 29.63%
Asian Language** 42 73.68%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 1,510 3.19%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 193 57.27%
Other Indo-European* 42 14.58%
Asian Language** 17 38.64%
Other Language 0 -
Total 252 0.69%

* "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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