Letcher 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 24,974 98.64% 23,454 98.27%
Spanish 73 0.29% 159 0.67%
Other Indo-European* 241 0.95% 201 0.84%
Asian Language** 30 0.12% 49 0.21%
Other 0 0.00% 5 0.02%
Total Population Age 5+ 25,318 100.00% 23,868 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 79 49.69%
Other Indo-European* 73 36.32%
Asian Language** 14 28.57%
Other Language 2 40.00%
Total 168 0.70%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 13 17.81%
Other Indo-European* 105 43.57%
Asian Language** 11 36.67%
Other Language 0 -
Total 129 0.51%

* "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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