Allen 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 98,635 97.19% 97,817 96.59%
Spanish 1,044 1.03% 1,705 1.68%
Other Indo-European* 1,456 1.43% 1,198 1.18%
Asian Language** 272 0.27% 444 0.44%
Other 81 0.08% 105 0.10%
Total Population Age 5+ 101,488 100.00% 101,269 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 560 32.84%
Other Indo-European* 369 30.80%
Asian Language** 109 24.55%
Other Language 19 18.10%
Total 1,057 1.04%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 293 28.07%
Other Indo-European* 387 26.58%
Asian Language** 67 24.63%
Other Language 14 17.28%
Total 761 0.75%

* "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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