Brown 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 3,342 98.27% 3,262 97.72%
Spanish 27 0.79% 48 1.44%
Other Indo-European* 30 0.88% 23 0.69%
Asian Language** 0 0.00% 5 0.15%
Other 2 0.06% 0 0.00%
Total Population Age 5+ 3,401 100.00% 3,338 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 11 22.92%
Other Indo-European* 5 21.74%
Asian Language** 2 40.00%
Other Language 0 -
Total 18 0.54%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 17 62.96%
Other Indo-European* 9 30.00%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 2 100.00%
Total 28 0.82%

* "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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