Cedar 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 15,845 97.34% 16,550 96.85%
Spanish 101 0.62% 265 1.55%
Other Indo-European* 306 1.88% 233 1.36%
Asian Language** 21 0.13% 38 0.22%
Other 5 0.03% 2 0.01%
Total Population Age 5+ 16,278 100.00% 17,088 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 114 43.02%
Other Indo-European* 47 20.17%
Asian Language** 10 26.32%
Other Language 2 100.00%
Total 173 1.01%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 36 35.64%
Other Indo-European* 71 23.20%
Asian Language** 6 28.57%
Other Language 0 -
Total 113 0.69%

* "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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