Jackson 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 27,138 97.71% 36,658 94.96%
Spanish 301 1.08% 1,348 3.49%
Other Indo-European* 265 0.95% 268 0.69%
Asian Language** 57 0.21% 314 0.81%
Other 13 0.05% 17 0.04%
Total Population Age 5+ 27,774 100.00% 38,605 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 812 60.24%
Other Indo-European* 99 36.94%
Asian Language** 143 45.54%
Other Language 15 88.24%
Total 1,069 2.77%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 119 39.53%
Other Indo-European* 74 27.92%
Asian Language** 14 24.56%
Other Language 0 -
Total 207 0.75%

* "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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