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Jefferson 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 95,256 93.90% 96,110 92.80%
Spanish 2,585 2.55% 3,579 3.46%
Other Indo-European* 2,709 2.67% 2,900 2.80%
Asian Language** 679 0.67% 765 0.74%
Other 218 0.21% 208 0.20%
Total Population Age 5+ 101,447 100.00% 103,562 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,189 33.22%
Other Indo-European* 624 21.52%
Asian Language** 297 38.82%
Other Language 61 29.33%
Total 2,171 2.10%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 881 34.08%
Other Indo-European* 794 29.31%
Asian Language** 238 35.05%
Other Language 57 26.15%
Total 1,970 1.94%

* "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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