Putnam 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 27,521 96.67% 32,887 97.13%
Spanish 423 1.49% 536 1.58%
Other Indo-European* 385 1.35% 261 0.77%
Asian Language** 94 0.33% 127 0.38%
Other 47 0.17% 47 0.14%
Total Population Age 5+ 28,470 100.00% 33,858 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 141 26.31%
Other Indo-European* 64 24.52%
Asian Language** 79 62.20%
Other Language 9 19.15%
Total 293 0.87%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 159 37.59%
Other Indo-European* 128 33.25%
Asian Language** 61 64.89%
Other Language 6 12.77%
Total 354 1.24%

* "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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