Boone 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 34,455 97.62% 41,541 97.24%
Spanish 407 1.15% 466 1.09%
Other Indo-European* 388 1.10% 555 1.30%
Asian Language** 31 0.09% 147 0.34%
Other 14 0.04% 13 0.03%
Total Population Age 5+ 35,295 100.00% 42,722 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 98 21.03%
Other Indo-European* 81 14.59%
Asian Language** 57 38.78%
Other Language 7 53.85%
Total 243 0.57%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 182 44.72%
Other Indo-European* 98 25.26%
Asian Language** 2 6.45%
Other Language 0 -
Total 282 0.80%

* "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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