Webster 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 9,419 98.43% 9,431 97.99%
Spanish 59 0.62% 135 1.40%
Other Indo-European* 73 0.76% 53 0.55%
Asian Language** 5 0.05% 1 0.01%
Other 13 0.14% 4 0.04%
Total Population Age 5+ 9,569 100.00% 9,624 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 70 51.85%
Other Indo-European* 23 43.40%
Asian Language** 1 100.00%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 94 0.98%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 19 32.20%
Other Indo-European* 13 17.81%
Asian Language** 3 60.00%
Other Language 0 -
Total 35 0.37%

* "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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