Red Lake 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 3,912 93.12% 3,853 94.83%
Spanish 54 1.29% 29 0.71%
Other Indo-European* 229 5.45% 148 3.64%
Asian Language** 0 0.00% 12 0.30%
Other 6 0.14% 21 0.52%
Total Population Age 5+ 4,201 100.00% 4,063 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 7 24.14%
Other Indo-European* 40 27.03%
Asian Language** 6 50.00%
Other Language 19 90.48%
Total 72 1.77%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 6 11.11%
Other Indo-European* 50 21.83%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 56 1.33%

* "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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