Litchfield 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 148,954 91.88% 157,582 91.85%
Spanish 1,350 0.83% 3,535 2.06%
Other Indo-European* 10,362 6.39% 8,618 5.02%
Asian Language** 896 0.55% 1,302 0.76%
Other 551 0.34% 530 0.31%
Total Population Age 5+ 162,113 100.00% 171,567 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,244 35.19%
Other Indo-European* 2,547 29.55%
Asian Language** 845 64.90%
Other Language 137 25.85%
Total 4,773 2.78%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 491 36.37%
Other Indo-European* 3,195 30.83%
Asian Language** 485 54.13%
Other Language 170 30.85%
Total 4,341 2.68%

* "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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