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Allegan 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 78,587 94.60% 91,396 93.22%
Spanish 2,398 2.89% 5,097 5.20%
Other Indo-European* 1,766 2.13% 1,052 1.07%
Asian Language** 247 0.30% 335 0.34%
Other 75 0.09% 159 0.16%
Total Population Age 5+ 83,073 100.00% 98,039 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 2,221 43.57%
Other Indo-European* 157 14.92%
Asian Language** 198 59.10%
Other Language 35 22.01%
Total 2,611 2.66%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 820 34.20%
Other Indo-European* 572 32.39%
Asian Language** 123 49.80%
Other Language 3 4.00%
Total 1,518 1.83%

* "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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