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Richmond 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 283,102 80.65% 306,662 74.00%
Spanish 19,804 5.64% 37,209 8.98%
Other Indo-European* 32,961 9.39% 45,078 10.88%
Asian Language** 10,839 3.09% 16,424 3.96%
Other 4,325 1.23% 9,029 2.18%
Total Population Age 5+ 351,031 100.00% 414,402 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 13,945 37.48%
Other Indo-European* 15,797 35.04%
Asian Language** 7,876 47.95%
Other Language 2,658 29.44%
Total 40,276 9.72%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 6,948 35.08%
Other Indo-European* 10,543 31.99%
Asian Language** 4,971 45.86%
Other Language 1,130 26.13%
Total 23,592 6.72%

* "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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