Fayette 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 55,230 95.28% 79,981 92.99%
Spanish 1,028 1.77% 2,295 2.67%
Other Indo-European* 782 1.35% 2,092 2.43%
Asian Language** 829 1.43% 1,415 1.65%
Other 98 0.17% 224 0.26%
Total Population Age 5+ 57,967 100.00% 86,007 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 728 31.72%
Other Indo-European* 472 22.56%
Asian Language** 797 56.33%
Other Language 64 28.57%
Total 2,061 2.40%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 290 28.21%
Other Indo-European* 73 9.34%
Asian Language** 501 60.43%
Other Language 6 6.12%
Total 870 1.50%

* "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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