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Kings 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 1,280,240 60.26% 1,217,121 53.26%
Spanish 382,469 18.00% 411,346 18.00%
Other Indo-European* 333,391 15.69% 456,601 19.98%
Asian Language** 79,523 3.74% 133,776 5.85%
Other 48,991 2.31% 66,379 2.90%
Total Population Age 5+ 2,124,614 100.00% 2,285,223 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 197,017 47.90%
Other Indo-European* 233,245 51.08%
Asian Language** 93,649 70.00%
Other Language 23,152 34.88%
Total 547,063 23.94%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 180,508 47.20%
Other Indo-European* 156,545 46.96%
Asian Language** 55,878 70.27%
Other Language 17,407 35.53%
Total 410,338 19.31%

* "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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