Amador 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 26,358 92.25% 31,125 92.39%
Spanish 1,385 4.85% 1,692 5.02%
Other Indo-European* 584 2.04% 587 1.74%
Asian Language** 85 0.30% 250 0.74%
Other 161 0.56% 36 0.11%
Total Population Age 5+ 28,573 100.00% 33,690 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 528 31.21%
Other Indo-European* 63 10.73%
Asian Language** 127 50.80%
Other Language 9 25.00%
Total 727 2.16%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 482 34.80%
Other Indo-European* 141 24.14%
Asian Language** 33 38.82%
Other Language 22 13.66%
Total 678 2.37%

* "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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