Athens 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 53,427 94.74% 56,027 94.60%
Spanish 660 1.17% 1,006 1.70%
Other Indo-European* 1,102 1.95% 1,017 1.72%
Asian Language** 1,001 1.77% 851 1.44%
Other 206 0.37% 323 0.55%
Total Population Age 5+ 56,396 100.00% 59,224 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 345 34.29%
Other Indo-European* 262 25.76%
Asian Language** 431 50.65%
Other Language 142 43.96%
Total 1,180 1.99%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 261 39.55%
Other Indo-European* 202 18.33%
Asian Language** 514 51.35%
Other Language 59 28.64%
Total 1,036 1.84%

* "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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