Kauai 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 36,010 76.10% 44,111 80.46%
Spanish 594 1.26% 620 1.13%
Other Indo-European* 594 1.26% 562 1.03%
Asian Language** 10,117 21.38% 9,486 17.30%
Other 4 0.01% 43 0.08%
Total Population Age 5+ 47,319 100.00% 54,822 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 170 27.42%
Other Indo-European* 86 15.30%
Asian Language** 4,522 47.67%
Other Language 9 20.93%
Total 4,787 8.73%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 130 21.89%
Other Indo-European* 158 26.60%
Asian Language** 5,469 54.06%
Other Language 0 -
Total 5,757 12.17%

* "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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