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Rowan 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 100,442 97.34% 114,644 94.17%
Spanish 1,315 1.27% 5,170 4.25%
Other Indo-European* 1,153 1.12% 1,231 1.01%
Asian Language** 233 0.23% 576 0.47%
Other 39 0.04% 124 0.10%
Total Population Age 5+ 103,182 100.00% 121,745 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,224 62.36%
Other Indo-European* 380 30.87%
Asian Language** 361 62.67%
Other Language 24 19.35%
Total 3,989 3.28%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 506 38.48%
Other Indo-European* 354 30.70%
Asian Language** 117 50.21%
Other Language 9 23.08%
Total 986 0.96%

* "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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