Kent 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 95,322 93.56% 108,274 92.10%
Spanish 2,228 2.19% 3,861 3.28%
Other Indo-European* 3,400 3.34% 3,759 3.20%
Asian Language** 798 0.78% 1,404 1.19%
Other 140 0.14% 264 0.22%
Total Population Age 5+ 101,888 100.00% 117,562 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,533 39.70%
Other Indo-European* 1,268 33.73%
Asian Language** 710 50.57%
Other Language 32 12.12%
Total 3,543 3.01%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 908 40.75%
Other Indo-European* 1,363 40.09%
Asian Language** 292 36.59%
Other Language 30 21.43%
Total 2,593 2.54%

* "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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