Beaver 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 4,218 96.24% 4,988 91.74%
Spanish 98 2.24% 289 5.32%
Other Indo-European* 33 0.75% 56 1.03%
Asian Language** 17 0.39% 45 0.83%
Other 17 0.39% 59 1.09%
Total Population Age 5+ 4,383 100.00% 5,437 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 177 61.25%
Other Indo-European* 10 17.86%
Asian Language** 31 68.89%
Other Language 47 79.66%
Total 265 4.87%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 37 37.76%
Other Indo-European* 2 6.06%
Asian Language** 3 17.65%
Other Language 9 52.94%
Total 51 1.16%

* "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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