Leon 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 169,090 93.82% 208,570 92.40%
Spanish 5,313 2.95% 8,248 3.65%
Other Indo-European* 3,631 2.01% 4,883 2.16%
Asian Language** 1,494 0.83% 2,924 1.30%
Other 701 0.39% 1,093 0.48%
Total Population Age 5+ 180,229 100.00% 225,718 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 2,162 26.21%
Other Indo-European* 1,040 21.30%
Asian Language** 1,053 36.01%
Other Language 187 17.11%
Total 4,442 1.97%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,714 32.26%
Other Indo-European* 1,058 29.14%
Asian Language** 736 49.26%
Other Language 191 27.25%
Total 3,699 2.05%

* "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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