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Passaic 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 278,708 66.32% 263,028 58.10%
Spanish 84,339 20.07% 127,055 28.06%
Other Indo-European* 43,834 10.43% 42,968 9.49%
Asian Language** 5,767 1.37% 9,332 2.06%
Other 7,602 1.81% 10,360 2.29%
Total Population Age 5+ 420,250 100.00% 452,743 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 69,222 54.48%
Other Indo-European* 18,512 43.08%
Asian Language** 3,985 42.70%
Other Language 3,730 36.00%
Total 95,449 21.08%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 46,687 55.36%
Other Indo-European* 17,877 40.78%
Asian Language** 2,455 42.57%
Other Language 2,969 39.06%
Total 69,988 16.65%

* "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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