Morris 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 338,372 85.91% 351,459 80.29%
Spanish 16,391 4.16% 31,704 7.24%
Other Indo-European* 27,334 6.94% 34,478 7.88%
Asian Language** 9,276 2.36% 17,266 3.94%
Other 2,503 0.64% 2,839 0.65%
Total Population Age 5+ 393,876 100.00% 437,746 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 15,955 50.32%
Other Indo-European* 9,853 28.58%
Asian Language** 6,740 39.04%
Other Language 627 22.09%
Total 33,175 7.58%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 7,764 47.37%
Other Indo-European* 8,144 29.79%
Asian Language** 4,480 48.30%
Other Language 652 26.05%
Total 21,040 5.34%

* "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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