Fayette 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 23,150 98.25% 26,291 97.86%
Spanish 244 1.04% 260 0.97%
Other Indo-European* 160 0.68% 216 0.80%
Asian Language** 5 0.02% 47 0.17%
Other 4 0.02% 53 0.20%
Total Population Age 5+ 23,563 100.00% 26,867 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 60 23.08%
Other Indo-European* 48 22.22%
Asian Language** 21 44.68%
Other Language 14 26.42%
Total 143 0.53%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 57 23.36%
Other Indo-European* 71 44.38%
Asian Language** 3 60.00%
Other Language 2 50.00%
Total 133 0.56%

* "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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