Effingham 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 22,877 96.76% 33,722 97.18%
Spanish 430 1.82% 460 1.33%
Other Indo-European* 267 1.13% 308 0.89%
Asian Language** 13 0.05% 211 0.61%
Other 56 0.24% 0 0.00%
Total Population Age 5+ 23,643 100.00% 34,701 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 199 43.26%
Other Indo-European* 137 44.48%
Asian Language** 100 47.39%
Other Language 0 -
Total 436 1.26%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 137 31.86%
Other Indo-European* 73 27.34%
Asian Language** 5 38.46%
Other Language 26 46.43%
Total 241 1.02%

* "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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