Atlantic 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 180,901 86.86% 188,376 79.68%
Spanish 13,034 6.26% 26,047 11.02%
Other Indo-European* 10,304 4.95% 13,467 5.70%
Asian Language** 3,167 1.52% 7,069 2.99%
Other 855 0.41% 1,446 0.61%
Total Population Age 5+ 208,261 100.00% 236,405 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 12,559 48.22%
Other Indo-European* 5,238 38.90%
Asian Language** 4,193 59.32%
Other Language 485 33.54%
Total 22,475 9.51%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 5,694 43.69%
Other Indo-European* 3,232 31.37%
Asian Language** 1,635 51.63%
Other Language 217 25.38%
Total 10,778 5.18%

* "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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