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Otsego 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 54,173 95.43% 55,731 94.86%
Spanish 671 1.18% 1,244 2.12%
Other Indo-European* 1,686 2.97% 1,457 2.48%
Asian Language** 152 0.27% 203 0.35%
Other 84 0.15% 117 0.20%
Total Population Age 5+ 56,766 100.00% 58,752 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 277 22.27%
Other Indo-European* 428 29.38%
Asian Language** 56 27.59%
Other Language 31 26.50%
Total 792 1.35%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 266 39.64%
Other Indo-European* 467 27.70%
Asian Language** 53 34.87%
Other Language 9 10.71%
Total 795 1.40%

* "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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