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Washoe 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 205,929 87.26% 253,447 80.10%
Spanish 15,991 6.78% 42,895 13.56%
Other Indo-European* 6,293 2.67% 7,910 2.50%
Asian Language** 6,725 2.85% 10,668 3.37%
Other 1,052 0.45% 1,482 0.47%
Total Population Age 5+ 235,990 100.00% 316,402 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 22,793 53.14%
Other Indo-European* 2,153 27.22%
Asian Language** 4,724 44.28%
Other Language 350 23.62%
Total 30,020 9.49%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 8,161 51.03%
Other Indo-European* 1,417 22.52%
Asian Language** 2,999 44.59%
Other Language 327 31.08%
Total 12,904 5.47%

* "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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