Blaine 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 10,165 95.63% 10,231 90.74%
Spanish 246 2.31% 714 6.33%
Other Indo-European* 162 1.52% 97 0.86%
Asian Language** 3 0.03% 111 0.98%
Other 53 0.50% 122 1.08%
Total Population Age 5+ 10,629 100.00% 11,275 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 348 48.74%
Other Indo-European* 32 32.99%
Asian Language** 21 18.92%
Other Language 45 36.89%
Total 446 3.96%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 81 32.93%
Other Indo-European* 75 46.30%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 14 26.42%
Total 170 1.60%

* "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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