Chippewa 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 47,152 97.22% 50,227 96.96%
Spanish 347 0.72% 722 1.39%
Other Indo-European* 840 1.73% 534 1.03%
Asian Language** 113 0.23% 288 0.56%
Other 46 0.09% 30 0.06%
Total Population Age 5+ 48,498 100.00% 51,801 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 207 28.67%
Other Indo-European* 118 22.10%
Asian Language** 169 58.68%
Other Language 8 26.67%
Total 502 0.97%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 115 33.14%
Other Indo-European* 251 29.88%
Asian Language** 54 47.79%
Other Language 0 -
Total 420 0.87%

* "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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