Fergus 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 10,782 95.42% 10,922 96.83%
Spanish 97 0.86% 142 1.26%
Other Indo-European* 396 3.50% 209 1.85%
Asian Language** 20 0.18% 3 0.03%
Other 5 0.04% 3 0.03%
Total Population Age 5+ 11,300 100.00% 11,279 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 61 42.96%
Other Indo-European* 19 9.09%
Asian Language** 0 0.00%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 80 0.71%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 54 55.67%
Other Indo-European* 111 28.03%
Asian Language** 12 60.00%
Other Language 0 -
Total 177 1.57%

* "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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