Franklin 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 40,019 97.60% 43,149 96.36%
Spanish 470 1.15% 880 1.97%
Other Indo-European* 409 1.00% 492 1.10%
Asian Language** 60 0.15% 155 0.35%
Other 43 0.10% 101 0.23%
Total Population Age 5+ 41,001 100.00% 44,777 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 438 49.77%
Other Indo-European* 114 23.17%
Asian Language** 65 41.94%
Other Language 9 8.91%
Total 626 1.40%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 138 29.36%
Other Indo-European* 157 38.39%
Asian Language** 35 58.33%
Other Language 6 13.95%
Total 336 0.82%

* "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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