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O'Brien 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 14,022 97.25% 13,613 95.84%
Spanish 131 0.91% 338 2.38%
Other Indo-European* 248 1.72% 212 1.49%
Asian Language** 17 0.12% 11 0.08%
Other 0 0.00% 30 0.21%
Total Population Age 5+ 14,418 100.00% 14,204 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 175 51.78%
Other Indo-European* 55 25.94%
Asian Language** 6 54.55%
Other Language 22 73.33%
Total 258 1.82%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 48 36.64%
Other Indo-European* 94 37.90%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 142 0.98%

* "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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