Cattaraugus 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 74,081 95.06% 74,742 94.87%
Spanish 862 1.11% 1,118 1.42%
Other Indo-European* 2,515 3.23% 2,314 2.94%
Asian Language** 170 0.22% 261 0.33%
Other 306 0.39% 350 0.44%
Total Population Age 5+ 77,934 100.00% 78,785 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 380 33.99%
Other Indo-European* 1,131 48.88%
Asian Language** 124 47.51%
Other Language 74 21.14%
Total 1,709 2.17%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 231 26.80%
Other Indo-European* 997 39.64%
Asian Language** 70 41.18%
Other Language 55 17.97%
Total 1,353 1.74%

* "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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