Texas 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 19,628 98.02% 21,162 97.62%
Spanish 72 0.36% 189 0.87%
Other Indo-European* 232 1.16% 252 1.16%
Asian Language** 84 0.42% 58 0.27%
Other 8 0.04% 17 0.08%
Total Population Age 5+ 20,024 100.00% 21,678 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 40 21.16%
Other Indo-European* 80 31.75%
Asian Language** 26 44.83%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 146 0.67%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 35 48.61%
Other Indo-European* 69 29.74%
Asian Language** 25 29.76%
Other Language 6 75.00%
Total 135 0.67%

* "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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