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Polk County

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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 352,897 93.59% 398,332 87.90%
Spanish 14,967 3.97% 40,178 8.87%
Other Indo-European* 6,916 1.83% 10,168 2.24%
Asian Language** 1,447 0.38% 3,725 0.82%
Other 834 0.22% 777 0.17%
Total Population Age 5+ 377,061 100.00% 453,180 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 19,068 47.46%
Other Indo-European* 3,479 34.22%
Asian Language** 1,791 48.08%
Other Language 210 27.03%
Total 24,548 5.42%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 6,090 40.69%
Other Indo-European* 2,106 30.45%
Asian Language** 767 53.01%
Other Language 154 18.47%
Total 9,117 2.42%

* "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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