Nelson 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 27,061 98.38% 33,837 97.40%
Spanish 145 0.53% 433 1.25%
Other Indo-European* 237 0.86% 239 0.69%
Asian Language** 52 0.19% 215 0.62%
Other 12 0.04% 17 0.05%
Total Population Age 5+ 27,507 100.00% 34,741 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 169 39.03%
Other Indo-European* 78 32.64%
Asian Language** 117 54.42%
Other Language 8 47.06%
Total 372 1.07%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 88 60.69%
Other Indo-European* 51 21.52%
Asian Language** 29 55.77%
Other Language 12 100.00%
Total 180 0.65%

* "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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