Allegheny 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 1,170,891 93.48% 1,131,112 93.42%
Spanish 10,689 0.85% 15,708 1.30%
Other Indo-European* 58,970 4.71% 46,052 3.80%
Asian Language** 7,327 0.58% 12,797 1.06%
Other 4,640 0.37% 5,051 0.42%
Total Population Age 5+ 1,252,517 100.00% 1,210,720 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 4,802 30.57%
Other Indo-European* 13,008 28.25%
Asian Language** 5,546 43.34%
Other Language 1,223 24.21%
Total 24,579 2.03%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,152 29.49%
Other Indo-European* 16,271 27.59%
Asian Language** 3,288 44.88%
Other Language 1,240 26.72%
Total 23,951 1.91%

* "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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