Ashley 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 22,123 97.69% 21,674 95.95%
Spanish 365 1.61% 781 3.46%
Other Indo-European* 136 0.60% 100 0.44%
Asian Language** 22 0.10% 17 0.08%
Other 0 0.00% 16 0.07%
Total Population Age 5+ 22,646 100.00% 22,588 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 463 59.28%
Other Indo-European* 32 32.00%
Asian Language** 8 47.06%
Other Language 2 12.50%
Total 505 2.24%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 120 32.88%
Other Indo-European* 47 34.56%
Asian Language** 4 18.18%
Other Language 0 -
Total 171 0.76%

* "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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