Wayne 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 85,736 91.72% 94,390 90.99%
Spanish 845 0.90% 1,210 1.17%
Other Indo-European* 6,566 7.02% 7,627 7.35%
Asian Language** 233 0.25% 314 0.30%
Other 99 0.11% 194 0.19%
Total Population Age 5+ 93,479 100.00% 103,735 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 431 35.62%
Other Indo-European* 3,224 42.27%
Asian Language** 198 63.06%
Other Language 47 24.23%
Total 3,900 3.76%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 259 30.65%
Other Indo-European* 3,573 54.42%
Asian Language** 104 44.64%
Other Language 41 41.41%
Total 3,977 4.25%

* "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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