St. Lucie 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 127,031 90.88% 156,941 86.22%
Spanish 5,243 3.75% 13,807 7.59%
Other Indo-European* 6,860 4.91% 9,404 5.17%
Asian Language** 270 0.19% 1,288 0.71%
Other 380 0.27% 589 0.32%
Total Population Age 5+ 139,784 100.00% 182,029 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 6,786 49.15%
Other Indo-European* 3,353 35.66%
Asian Language** 564 43.79%
Other Language 175 29.71%
Total 10,878 5.98%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 2,384 45.47%
Other Indo-European* 2,207 32.17%
Asian Language** 107 39.63%
Other Language 163 42.89%
Total 4,861 3.48%

* "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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