Cass 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 34,986 97.67% 35,265 92.65%
Spanish 226 0.63% 2,216 5.82%
Other Indo-European* 511 1.43% 340 0.89%
Asian Language** 89 0.25% 216 0.57%
Other 7 0.02% 26 0.07%
Total Population Age 5+ 35,819 100.00% 38,063 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,186 53.52%
Other Indo-European* 146 42.94%
Asian Language** 112 51.85%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 1,444 3.79%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 61 26.99%
Other Indo-European* 118 23.09%
Asian Language** 54 60.67%
Other Language 0 -
Total 233 0.65%

* "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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