Baldwin 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 89,318 97.53% 126,636 96.04%
Spanish 970 1.06% 2,989 2.27%
Other Indo-European* 1,175 1.28% 1,816 1.38%
Asian Language** 92 0.10% 339 0.26%
Other 24 0.03% 82 0.06%
Total Population Age 5+ 91,579 100.00% 131,862 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,114 37.27%
Other Indo-European* 392 21.59%
Asian Language** 186 54.87%
Other Language 32 39.02%
Total 1,724 1.31%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 270 27.84%
Other Indo-European* 228 19.40%
Asian Language** 46 50.00%
Other Language 0 -
Total 544 0.59%

* "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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