Chaffee 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 11,024 91.84% 14,192 91.30%
Spanish 622 5.18% 913 5.87%
Other Indo-European* 327 2.72% 383 2.46%
Asian Language** 7 0.06% 41 0.26%
Other 24 0.20% 15 0.10%
Total Population Age 5+ 12,004 100.00% 15,544 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 397 43.48%
Other Indo-European* 103 26.89%
Asian Language** 11 26.83%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 511 3.29%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 150 24.12%
Other Indo-European* 26 7.95%
Asian Language** 7 100.00%
Other Language 15 62.50%
Total 198 1.65%

* "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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