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Lake 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 411,789 87.15% 464,971 78.61%
Spanish 30,759 6.51% 76,049 12.86%
Other Indo-European* 21,643 4.58% 32,238 5.45%
Asian Language** 6,799 1.44% 15,710 2.66%
Other 1,518 0.32% 2,551 0.43%
Total Population Age 5+ 472,508 100.00% 591,519 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 42,631 56.06%
Other Indo-European* 9,467 29.37%
Asian Language** 6,282 39.99%
Other Language 586 22.97%
Total 58,966 9.97%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 15,420 50.13%
Other Indo-European* 5,608 25.91%
Asian Language** 2,583 37.99%
Other Language 373 24.57%
Total 23,984 5.08%

* "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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