Williamsburg 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 33,102 97.44% 33,802 97.44%
Spanish 278 0.82% 431 1.24%
Other Indo-European* 566 1.67% 364 1.05%
Asian Language** 17 0.05% 83 0.24%
Other 8 0.02% 9 0.03%
Total Population Age 5+ 33,971 100.00% 34,689 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 162 37.59%
Other Indo-European* 162 44.51%
Asian Language** 25 30.12%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 349 1.01%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 53 19.06%
Other Indo-European* 142 25.09%
Asian Language** 4 23.53%
Other Language 0 -
Total 199 0.59%

* "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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