Humboldt 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 9,830 97.81% 9,552 97.23%
Spanish 63 0.63% 187 1.90%
Other Indo-European* 126 1.25% 77 0.78%
Asian Language** 31 0.31% 8 0.08%
Other 0 0.00% 0 0.00%
Total Population Age 5+ 10,050 100.00% 9,824 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 98 52.41%
Other Indo-European* 19 24.68%
Asian Language** 8 100.00%
Other Language 0 -
Total 125 1.27%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 15 23.81%
Other Indo-European* 43 34.13%
Asian Language** 2 6.45%
Other Language 0 -
Total 60 0.60%

* "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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