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Lafayette Parish

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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 114,222 75.67% 144,399 81.69%
Spanish 1,822 1.21% 3,053 1.73%
Other Indo-European* 33,498 22.19% 27,135 15.35%
Asian Language** 1,091 0.72% 1,554 0.88%
Other 309 0.20% 633 0.36%
Total Population Age 5+ 150,942 100.00% 176,774 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,035 33.90%
Other Indo-European* 5,720 21.08%
Asian Language** 688 44.27%
Other Language 174 27.49%
Total 7,617 4.31%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 420 23.05%
Other Indo-European* 9,033 26.97%
Asian Language** 574 52.61%
Other Language 203 65.70%
Total 10,230 6.78%

* "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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