Knox 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 32,810 96.85% 36,258 96.55%
Spanish 160 0.47% 276 0.73%
Other Indo-European* 771 2.28% 884 2.35%
Asian Language** 24 0.07% 97 0.26%
Other 113 0.33% 37 0.10%
Total Population Age 5+ 33,878 100.00% 37,552 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 62 22.46%
Other Indo-European* 116 13.12%
Asian Language** 26 26.80%
Other Language 4 10.81%
Total 208 0.55%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 42 26.25%
Other Indo-European* 217 28.15%
Asian Language** 4 16.67%
Other Language 30 26.55%
Total 293 0.86%

* "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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