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Kane County

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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 245,213 84.70% 276,235 74.88%
Spanish 33,157 11.45% 77,546 21.02%
Other Indo-European* 7,897 2.73% 10,015 2.71%
Asian Language** 2,671 0.92% 3,967 1.08%
Other 559 0.19% 1,120 0.30%
Total Population Age 5+ 289,497 100.00% 368,883 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 48,461 62.49%
Other Indo-European* 2,799 27.95%
Asian Language** 1,573 39.65%
Other Language 376 33.57%
Total 53,209 14.42%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 16,585 50.02%
Other Indo-European* 1,890 23.93%
Asian Language** 1,609 60.24%
Other Language 163 29.16%
Total 20,247 6.99%

* "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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