Strafford 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 89,051 92.24% 98,282 93.05%
Spanish 526 0.54% 935 0.89%
Other Indo-European* 6,100 6.32% 5,064 4.79%
Asian Language** 698 0.72% 1,052 1.00%
Other 169 0.18% 290 0.27%
Total Population Age 5+ 96,544 100.00% 105,623 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 257 27.49%
Other Indo-European* 974 19.23%
Asian Language** 560 53.23%
Other Language 70 24.14%
Total 1,861 1.76%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 88 16.73%
Other Indo-European* 1,567 25.69%
Asian Language** 427 61.17%
Other Language 59 34.91%
Total 2,141 2.22%

* "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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