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Essex 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 32,287 93.35% 34,958 94.72%
Spanish 825 2.39% 812 2.20%
Other Indo-European* 1,268 3.67% 962 2.61%
Asian Language** 72 0.21% 136 0.37%
Other 134 0.39% 40 0.11%
Total Population Age 5+ 34,586 100.00% 36,908 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 494 60.84%
Other Indo-European* 268 27.86%
Asian Language** 66 48.53%
Other Language 8 20.00%
Total 836 2.27%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 407 49.33%
Other Indo-European* 280 22.08%
Asian Language** 33 45.83%
Other Language 30 22.39%
Total 750 2.17%

* "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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