Houston 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 18,840 94.26% 20,272 92.49%
Spanish 939 4.70% 1,531 6.98%
Other Indo-European* 207 1.04% 75 0.34%
Asian Language** 2 0.01% 41 0.19%
Other 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
Total Population Age 5+ 19,988 100.00% 21,919 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 662 43.24%
Other Indo-European* 36 48.00%
Asian Language** 8 19.51%
Other Language 0 -
Total 706 3.22%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 427 45.47%
Other Indo-European* 113 54.59%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 540 2.70%

* "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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