Jerome 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 12,829 92.26% 14,012 83.09%
Spanish 811 5.83% 2,592 15.37%
Other Indo-European* 218 1.57% 244 1.45%
Asian Language** 40 0.29% 3 0.02%
Other 7 0.05% 12 0.07%
Total Population Age 5+ 13,905 100.00% 16,863 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,525 58.83%
Other Indo-European* 53 21.72%
Asian Language** 0 0.00%
Other Language 3 25.00%
Total 1,581 9.38%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 316 38.96%
Other Indo-European* 50 22.94%
Asian Language** 5 12.50%
Other Language 0 -
Total 371 2.67%

* "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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