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Clay 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 44,237 94.35% 44,383 92.31%
Spanish 744 1.59% 1,736 3.61%
Other Indo-European* 1,589 3.39% 1,493 3.11%
Asian Language** 246 0.52% 267 0.56%
Other 68 0.15% 199 0.41%
Total Population Age 5+ 46,884 100.00% 48,078 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 648 37.33%
Other Indo-European* 595 39.85%
Asian Language** 122 45.69%
Other Language 25 12.56%
Total 1,390 2.89%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 313 42.07%
Other Indo-European* 391 24.61%
Asian Language** 150 60.98%
Other Language 7 10.29%
Total 861 1.84%

* "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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