Garfield 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 51,091 96.54% 50,863 94.29%
Spanish 810 1.53% 1,744 3.23%
Other Indo-European* 690 1.30% 601 1.11%
Asian Language** 200 0.38% 653 1.21%
Other 132 0.25% 83 0.15%
Total Population Age 5+ 52,923 100.00% 53,944 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 724 41.51%
Other Indo-European* 110 18.30%
Asian Language** 299 45.79%
Other Language 33 39.76%
Total 1,166 2.16%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 296 36.54%
Other Indo-European* 137 19.86%
Asian Language** 83 41.50%
Other Language 12 9.09%
Total 528 1.00%

* "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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