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Schenectady 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 126,666 91.20% 123,984 90.12%
Spanish 1,945 1.40% 3,756 2.73%
Other Indo-European* 8,860 6.38% 7,660 5.57%
Asian Language** 1,089 0.78% 1,425 1.04%
Other 325 0.23% 759 0.55%
Total Population Age 5+ 138,885 100.00% 137,584 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,123 29.90%
Other Indo-European* 2,304 30.08%
Asian Language** 519 36.42%
Other Language 312 41.11%
Total 4,258 3.09%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 588 30.23%
Other Indo-European* 2,744 30.97%
Asian Language** 388 35.63%
Other Language 128 39.38%
Total 3,848 2.77%

* "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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