Manatee 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 184,060 92.29% 218,481 87.74%
Spanish 8,165 4.09% 19,924 8.00%
Other Indo-European* 5,709 2.86% 8,167 3.28%
Asian Language** 1,038 0.52% 1,674 0.67%
Other 470 0.24% 758 0.30%
Total Population Age 5+ 199,442 100.00% 249,004 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 9,825 49.31%
Other Indo-European* 2,596 31.79%
Asian Language** 848 50.66%
Other Language 169 22.30%
Total 13,438 5.40%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,794 46.47%
Other Indo-European* 1,788 31.32%
Asian Language** 495 47.69%
Other Language 113 24.04%
Total 6,190 3.10%

* "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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