Armstrong 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 66,700 96.61% 66,809 97.51%
Spanish 477 0.69% 546 0.80%
Other Indo-European* 1,661 2.41% 934 1.36%
Asian Language** 101 0.15% 140 0.20%
Other 101 0.15% 84 0.12%
Total Population Age 5+ 69,040 100.00% 68,513 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 204 37.36%
Other Indo-European* 233 24.95%
Asian Language** 44 31.43%
Other Language 29 34.52%
Total 510 0.74%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 167 35.01%
Other Indo-European* 539 32.45%
Asian Language** 54 53.47%
Other Language 12 11.88%
Total 772 1.12%

* "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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