DeSoto 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 19,894 89.24% 23,008 75.86%
Spanish 1,955 8.77% 6,693 22.07%
Other Indo-European* 267 1.20% 511 1.68%
Asian Language** 139 0.62% 60 0.20%
Other 37 0.17% 59 0.19%
Total Population Age 5+ 22,292 100.00% 30,331 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 4,511 67.40%
Other Indo-European* 173 33.86%
Asian Language** 16 26.67%
Other Language 19 32.20%
Total 4,719 15.56%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 956 48.90%
Other Indo-European* 92 34.46%
Asian Language** 44 31.65%
Other Language 29 78.38%
Total 1,121 5.03%

* "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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