Johnson 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 10,577 97.91% 11,956 97.26%
Spanish 137 1.27% 224 1.82%
Other Indo-European* 79 0.73% 76 0.62%
Asian Language** 10 0.09% 27 0.22%
Other 0 0.00% 10 0.08%
Total Population Age 5+ 10,803 100.00% 12,293 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 85 37.95%
Other Indo-European* 14 18.42%
Asian Language** 13 48.15%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 112 0.91%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 36 26.28%
Other Indo-European* 23 29.11%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 59 0.55%

* "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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