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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 16,131 89.45% 16,041 86.47%
Spanish 354 1.96% 651 3.51%
Other Indo-European* 1,530 8.48% 1,798 9.69%
Asian Language** 16 0.09% 48 0.26%
Other 2 0.01% 13 0.07%
Total Population Age 5+ 18,033 100.00% 18,551 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 382 58.68%
Other Indo-European* 393 21.86%
Asian Language** 24 50.00%
Other Language 5 38.46%
Total 804 4.33%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 137 38.70%
Other Indo-European* 728 47.58%
Asian Language** 8 50.00%
Other Language 2 100.00%
Total 875 4.85%

* "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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