Falls 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 14,331 86.99% 15,056 86.06%
Spanish 1,655 10.05% 2,203 12.59%
Other Indo-European* 467 2.83% 234 1.34%
Asian Language** 13 0.08% 2 0.01%
Other 9 0.05% 0 0.00%
Total Population Age 5+ 16,475 100.00% 17,495 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,163 52.79%
Other Indo-European* 33 14.10%
Asian Language** 2 100.00%
Other Language 0 -
Total 1,198 6.85%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 762 46.04%
Other Indo-European* 153 32.76%
Asian Language** 11 84.62%
Other Language 0 -
Total 926 5.62%

* "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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