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Herkimer County

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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 57,655 94.06% 57,720 94.84%
Spanish 499 0.81% 715 1.17%
Other Indo-European* 3,041 4.96% 2,271 3.73%
Asian Language** 49 0.08% 141 0.23%
Other 51 0.08% 14 0.02%
Total Population Age 5+ 61,295 100.00% 60,861 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 207 28.95%
Other Indo-European* 733 32.28%
Asian Language** 50 35.46%
Other Language 4 28.57%
Total 994 1.63%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 150 30.06%
Other Indo-European* 722 23.74%
Asian Language** 28 57.14%
Other Language 7 13.73%
Total 907 1.48%

* "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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