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Union 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 339,176 73.47% 315,019 64.77%
Spanish 58,215 12.61% 92,910 19.10%
Other Indo-European* 53,853 11.66% 62,128 12.77%
Asian Language** 7,567 1.64% 10,579 2.18%
Other 2,854 0.62% 5,719 1.18%
Total Population Age 5+ 461,665 100.00% 486,355 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 50,069 53.89%
Other Indo-European* 25,223 40.60%
Asian Language** 3,973 37.56%
Other Language 1,623 28.38%
Total 80,888 16.63%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 31,409 53.95%
Other Indo-European* 22,441 41.67%
Asian Language** 2,994 39.57%
Other Language 748 26.21%
Total 57,592 12.47%

* "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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