Poinsett 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 22,460 98.13% 23,252 97.44%
Spanish 250 1.09% 486 2.04%
Other Indo-European* 75 0.33% 85 0.36%
Asian Language** 54 0.24% 33 0.14%
Other 48 0.21% 6 0.03%
Total Population Age 5+ 22,887 100.00% 23,862 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 220 45.27%
Other Indo-European* 8 9.41%
Asian Language** 2 6.06%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 230 0.96%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 135 54.00%
Other Indo-European* 39 52.00%
Asian Language** 31 57.41%
Other Language 19 39.58%
Total 224 0.98%

* "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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