Lancaster 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 189,032 95.22% 213,189 91.23%
Spanish 2,687 1.35% 7,679 3.29%
Other Indo-European* 4,395 2.21% 6,048 2.59%
Asian Language** 1,982 1.00% 5,399 2.31%
Other 433 0.22% 1,370 0.59%
Total Population Age 5+ 198,529 100.00% 233,685 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,043 39.63%
Other Indo-European* 2,322 38.39%
Asian Language** 3,250 60.20%
Other Language 702 51.24%
Total 9,317 3.99%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 801 29.81%
Other Indo-European* 1,147 26.10%
Asian Language** 1,223 61.71%
Other Language 116 26.79%
Total 3,287 1.66%

* "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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