Platte 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 6,984 92.66% 7,956 95.30%
Spanish 312 4.14% 315 3.77%
Other Indo-European* 200 2.65% 69 0.83%
Asian Language** 39 0.52% 7 0.08%
Other 2 0.03% 1 0.01%
Total Population Age 5+ 7,537 100.00% 8,348 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 115 36.51%
Other Indo-European* 28 40.58%
Asian Language** 0 0.00%
Other Language 1 100.00%
Total 144 1.72%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 96 30.77%
Other Indo-European* 53 26.50%
Asian Language** 7 17.95%
Other Language 0 -
Total 156 2.07%

* "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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