Madison County

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 61,405 95.59% 62,076 95.03%
Spanish 874 1.36% 1,241 1.90%
Other Indo-European* 1,516 2.36% 1,384 2.12%
Asian Language** 307 0.48% 281 0.43%
Other 134 0.21% 341 0.52%
Total Population Age 5+ 64,236 100.00% 65,323 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 414 33.36%
Other Indo-European* 353 25.51%
Asian Language** 112 39.86%
Other Language 65 19.06%
Total 944 1.45%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 379 43.36%
Other Indo-European* 546 36.02%
Asian Language** 31 10.10%
Other Language 78 58.21%
Total 1,034 1.61%

* "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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