Livingston 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 35,220 95.99% 36,030 96.44%
Spanish 764 2.08% 883 2.36%
Other Indo-European* 609 1.66% 323 0.86%
Asian Language** 58 0.16% 75 0.20%
Other 42 0.11% 50 0.13%
Total Population Age 5+ 36,693 100.00% 37,361 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 282 31.94%
Other Indo-European* 94 29.10%
Asian Language** 23 30.67%
Other Language 17 34.00%
Total 416 1.11%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 400 52.36%
Other Indo-European* 107 17.57%
Asian Language** 15 25.86%
Other Language 6 14.29%
Total 528 1.44%

* "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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