Craven 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 71,266 95.51% 79,360 93.59%
Spanish 1,427 1.91% 2,889 3.41%
Other Indo-European* 1,134 1.52% 1,481 1.75%
Asian Language** 601 0.81% 901 1.06%
Other 186 0.25% 162 0.19%
Total Population Age 5+ 74,614 100.00% 84,793 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,119 38.73%
Other Indo-European* 286 19.31%
Asian Language** 430 47.72%
Other Language 43 26.54%
Total 1,878 2.21%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 340 23.83%
Other Indo-European* 293 25.84%
Asian Language** 284 47.25%
Other Language 37 19.89%
Total 954 1.28%

* "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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