Dent 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 12,478 97.10% 13,673 97.88%
Spanish 147 1.14% 154 1.10%
Other Indo-European* 169 1.32% 111 0.79%
Asian Language** 51 0.40% 12 0.09%
Other 6 0.05% 19 0.14%
Total Population Age 5+ 12,851 100.00% 13,969 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 72 46.75%
Other Indo-European* 42 37.84%
Asian Language** 5 41.67%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 119 0.85%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 66 44.90%
Other Indo-European* 83 49.11%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 149 1.16%

* "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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