Decatur 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 21,376 97.48% 22,026 96.98%
Spanish 158 0.72% 141 0.62%
Other Indo-European* 262 1.19% 342 1.51%
Asian Language** 132 0.60% 201 0.88%
Other 0 0.00% 2 0.01%
Total Population Age 5+ 21,928 100.00% 22,712 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 31 21.99%
Other Indo-European* 36 10.53%
Asian Language** 109 54.23%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 176 0.77%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 52 32.91%
Other Indo-European* 54 20.61%
Asian Language** 69 52.27%
Other Language 0 -
Total 175 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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