Washington 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 95,722 93.08% 107,192 92.12%
Spanish 747 0.73% 2,136 1.84%
Other Indo-European* 5,200 5.06% 5,208 4.48%
Asian Language** 996 0.97% 1,476 1.27%
Other 174 0.17% 343 0.29%
Total Population Age 5+ 102,839 100.00% 116,355 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 560 26.22%
Other Indo-European* 946 18.16%
Asian Language** 722 48.92%
Other Language 64 18.66%
Total 2,292 1.97%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 218 29.18%
Other Indo-European* 1,212 23.31%
Asian Language** 425 42.67%
Other Language 63 36.21%
Total 1,918 1.87%

* "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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