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Plymouth County

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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 371,032 92.20% 395,467 89.89%
Spanish 7,302 1.81% 11,119 2.53%
Other Indo-European* 21,062 5.23% 28,838 6.55%
Asian Language** 1,944 0.48% 3,184 0.72%
Other 1,072 0.27% 1,337 0.30%
Total Population Age 5+ 402,412 100.00% 439,945 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,718 33.44%
Other Indo-European* 10,831 37.56%
Asian Language** 1,540 48.37%
Other Language 367 27.45%
Total 16,456 3.74%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 2,729 37.37%
Other Indo-European* 6,723 31.92%
Asian Language** 974 50.10%
Other Language 282 26.31%
Total 10,708 2.66%

* "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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