Cherokee 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 19,661 98.66% 20,604 97.84%
Spanish 157 0.79% 251 1.19%
Other Indo-European* 81 0.41% 100 0.47%
Asian Language** 16 0.08% 93 0.44%
Other 14 0.07% 10 0.05%
Total Population Age 5+ 19,929 100.00% 21,058 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 109 43.43%
Other Indo-European* 16 16.00%
Asian Language** 43 46.24%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 168 0.80%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 62 39.49%
Other Indo-European* 32 39.51%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 94 0.47%

* "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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