Hunt 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 56,667 95.04% 65,213 91.16%
Spanish 2,211 3.71% 5,404 7.55%
Other Indo-European* 508 0.85% 564 0.79%
Asian Language** 221 0.37% 314 0.44%
Other 17 0.03% 40 0.06%
Total Population Age 5+ 59,624 100.00% 71,535 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 2,701 49.98%
Other Indo-European* 114 20.21%
Asian Language** 116 36.94%
Other Language 8 20.00%
Total 2,939 4.11%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 973 44.01%
Other Indo-European* 197 38.78%
Asian Language** 103 46.61%
Other Language 9 52.94%
Total 1,282 2.15%

* "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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