Dukes 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 10,484 96.27% 12,983 91.78%
Spanish 73 0.67% 234 1.65%
Other Indo-European* 321 2.95% 841 5.95%
Asian Language** 10 0.09% 79 0.56%
Other 2 0.02% 9 0.06%
Total Population Age 5+ 10,890 100.00% 14,146 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 58 24.79%
Other Indo-European* 359 42.69%
Asian Language** 31 39.24%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 448 3.17%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 19 26.03%
Other Indo-European* 60 18.69%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 79 0.73%

* "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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