Loudoun 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 72,725 92.60% 130,316 85.01%
Spanish 1,930 2.46% 9,398 6.13%
Other Indo-European* 2,408 3.07% 7,090 4.63%
Asian Language** 1,296 1.65% 5,226 3.41%
Other 176 0.22% 1,263 0.82%
Total Population Age 5+ 78,535 100.00% 153,293 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 4,431 47.15%
Other Indo-European* 1,636 23.07%
Asian Language** 2,308 44.16%
Other Language 397 31.43%
Total 8,772 5.72%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 597 30.93%
Other Indo-European* 681 28.28%
Asian Language** 719 55.48%
Other Language 56 31.82%
Total 2,053 2.61%

* "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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