Rock 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 8,701 95.27% 8,847 96.53%
Spanish 31 0.34% 108 1.18%
Other Indo-European* 378 4.14% 170 1.85%
Asian Language** 18 0.20% 33 0.36%
Other 5 0.05% 7 0.08%
Total Population Age 5+ 9,133 100.00% 9,165 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 32 29.63%
Other Indo-European* 47 27.65%
Asian Language** 13 39.39%
Other Language 2 28.57%
Total 94 1.03%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 21 67.74%
Other Indo-European* 124 32.80%
Asian Language** 13 72.22%
Other Language 5 100.00%
Total 163 1.78%

* "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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