Caledonia 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 24,644 95.68% 26,798 95.50%
Spanish 83 0.32% 171 0.61%
Other Indo-European* 1,011 3.93% 994 3.54%
Asian Language** 13 0.05% 68 0.24%
Other 6 0.02% 31 0.11%
Total Population Age 5+ 25,757 100.00% 28,062 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 35 20.47%
Other Indo-European* 279 28.07%
Asian Language** 36 52.94%
Other Language 2 6.45%
Total 352 1.25%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 21 25.30%
Other Indo-European* 255 25.22%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 276 1.07%

* "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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