Rabun 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 10,620 96.76% 13,178 92.79%
Spanish 194 1.77% 777 5.47%
Other Indo-European* 162 1.48% 169 1.19%
Asian Language** 0 0.00% 70 0.49%
Other 0 0.00% 8 0.06%
Total Population Age 5+ 10,976 100.00% 14,202 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 421 54.18%
Other Indo-European* 58 34.32%
Asian Language** 43 61.43%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 522 3.68%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 111 57.22%
Other Indo-European* 49 30.25%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 160 1.46%

* "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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