Rockingham 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 52,025 97.13% 59,945 94.44%
Spanish 838 1.56% 2,228 3.51%
Other Indo-European* 520 0.97% 1,034 1.63%
Asian Language** 126 0.24% 149 0.23%
Other 53 0.10% 117 0.18%
Total Population Age 5+ 53,562 100.00% 63,473 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,422 63.82%
Other Indo-European* 387 37.43%
Asian Language** 62 41.61%
Other Language 55 47.01%
Total 1,926 3.03%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 227 27.09%
Other Indo-European* 124 23.85%
Asian Language** 62 49.21%
Other Language 5 9.43%
Total 418 0.78%

* "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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