Kittitas 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 24,022 95.17% 29,220 92.26%
Spanish 499 1.98% 1,410 4.45%
Other Indo-European* 368 1.46% 489 1.54%
Asian Language** 261 1.03% 464 1.46%
Other 92 0.36% 90 0.28%
Total Population Age 5+ 25,242 100.00% 31,673 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 728 51.63%
Other Indo-European* 139 28.43%
Asian Language** 251 54.09%
Other Language 35 38.89%
Total 1,153 3.64%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 227 45.49%
Other Indo-European* 83 22.55%
Asian Language** 158 60.54%
Other Language 32 34.78%
Total 500 1.98%

* "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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