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 22,937 97.51% 23,979 97.35%
Spanish 181 0.77% 371 1.51%
Other Indo-European* 304 1.29% 247 1.00%
Asian Language** 98 0.42% 27 0.11%
Other 2 0.01% 7 0.03%
Total Population Age 5+ 23,522 100.00% 24,631 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 153 41.24%
Other Indo-European* 81 32.79%
Asian Language** 7 25.93%
Other Language 5 71.43%
Total 246 1.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 52 28.73%
Other Indo-European* 49 16.12%
Asian Language** 50 51.02%
Other Language 0 -
Total 151 0.64%

* "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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