Leavenworth 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 55,987 93.48% 59,846 93.69%
Spanish 1,676 2.80% 1,879 2.94%
Other Indo-European* 1,447 2.42% 1,401 2.19%
Asian Language** 620 1.04% 615 0.96%
Other 165 0.28% 134 0.21%
Total Population Age 5+ 59,895 100.00% 63,875 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 556 29.59%
Other Indo-European* 410 29.26%
Asian Language** 275 44.72%
Other Language 34 25.37%
Total 1,275 2.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 461 27.51%
Other Indo-European* 302 20.87%
Asian Language** 197 31.77%
Other Language 80 48.48%
Total 1,040 1.74%

* "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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