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Benton County

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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 87,895 96.76% 127,380 89.77%
Spanish 1,590 1.75% 11,824 8.33%
Other Indo-European* 941 1.04% 1,250 0.88%
Asian Language** 265 0.29% 1,237 0.87%
Other 151 0.17% 198 0.14%
Total Population Age 5+ 90,842 100.00% 141,889 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 6,889 58.26%
Other Indo-European* 234 18.72%
Asian Language** 653 52.79%
Other Language 53 26.77%
Total 7,829 5.52%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 689 43.33%
Other Indo-European* 265 28.16%
Asian Language** 142 53.58%
Other Language 46 30.46%
Total 1,142 1.26%

* "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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