Franklin 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 36,886 97.47% 35,989 97.83%
Spanish 256 0.68% 350 0.95%
Other Indo-European* 556 1.47% 396 1.08%
Asian Language** 74 0.20% 29 0.08%
Other 73 0.19% 24 0.07%
Total Population Age 5+ 37,845 100.00% 36,788 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 85 24.29%
Other Indo-European* 134 33.84%
Asian Language** 0 0.00%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 219 0.60%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 71 27.73%
Other Indo-European* 203 36.51%
Asian Language** 34 45.95%
Other Language 23 31.51%
Total 331 0.87%

* "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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