Barrow 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 26,555 97.60% 39,973 94.21%
Spanish 340 1.25% 1,035 2.44%
Other Indo-European* 164 0.60% 518 1.22%
Asian Language** 142 0.52% 882 2.08%
Other 7 0.03% 21 0.05%
Total Population Age 5+ 27,208 100.00% 42,429 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 528 51.01%
Other Indo-European* 218 42.08%
Asian Language** 544 61.68%
Other Language 6 28.57%
Total 1,296 3.05%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 185 54.41%
Other Indo-European* 23 14.02%
Asian Language** 47 33.10%
Other Language 7 100.00%
Total 262 0.96%

* "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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