Wright 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 60,407 96.65% 79,842 96.80%
Spanish 322 0.52% 1,148 1.39%
Other Indo-European* 1,426 2.28% 1,129 1.37%
Asian Language** 51 0.08% 76 0.09%
Other 295 0.47% 290 0.35%
Total Population Age 5+ 62,501 100.00% 82,485 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 491 42.77%
Other Indo-European* 325 28.79%
Asian Language** 27 35.53%
Other Language 52 17.93%
Total 895 1.09%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 135 41.93%
Other Indo-European* 397 27.84%
Asian Language** 30 58.82%
Other Language 111 37.63%
Total 673 1.08%

* "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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