Pottawatomie 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 14,465 97.66% 16,370 97.02%
Spanish 99 0.67% 297 1.76%
Other Indo-European* 181 1.22% 149 0.88%
Asian Language** 22 0.15% 47 0.28%
Other 45 0.30% 9 0.05%
Total Population Age 5+ 14,812 100.00% 16,872 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 60 20.20%
Other Indo-European* 24 16.11%
Asian Language** 9 19.15%
Other Language 2 22.22%
Total 95 0.56%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 27 27.27%
Other Indo-European* 43 23.76%
Asian Language** 17 77.27%
Other Language 31 68.89%
Total 118 0.80%

* "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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