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San Benito County

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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 20,810 62.03% 30,248 62.21%
Spanish 11,374 33.90% 17,005 34.97%
Other Indo-European* 966 2.88% 769 1.58%
Asian Language** 341 1.02% 580 1.19%
Other 57 0.17% 21 0.04%
Total Population Age 5+ 33,548 100.00% 48,623 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 8,156 47.96%
Other Indo-European* 166 21.59%
Asian Language** 308 53.10%
Other Language 3 14.29%
Total 8,633 17.75%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 5,252 46.18%
Other Indo-European* 254 26.29%
Asian Language** 126 36.95%
Other Language 24 42.11%
Total 5,656 16.86%

* "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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