Allamakee 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 12,585 97.83% 12,683 91.83%
Spanish 75 0.58% 526 3.81%
Other Indo-European* 193 1.50% 558 4.04%
Asian Language** 11 0.09% 19 0.14%
Other 0 0.00% 26 0.19%
Total Population Age 5+ 12,864 100.00% 13,812 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 463 88.02%
Other Indo-European* 233 41.76%
Asian Language** 14 73.68%
Other Language 12 46.15%
Total 722 5.23%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 21 28.00%
Other Indo-European* 32 16.58%
Asian Language** 3 27.27%
Other Language 0 -
Total 56 0.44%

* "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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