Carteret 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 47,943 97.42% 54,291 96.15%
Spanish 467 0.95% 1,152 2.04%
Other Indo-European* 570 1.16% 652 1.15%
Asian Language** 163 0.33% 263 0.47%
Other 68 0.14% 107 0.19%
Total Population Age 5+ 49,211 100.00% 56,465 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 378 32.81%
Other Indo-European* 131 20.09%
Asian Language** 117 44.49%
Other Language 7 6.54%
Total 633 1.12%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 121 25.91%
Other Indo-European* 141 24.74%
Asian Language** 78 47.85%
Other Language 12 17.65%
Total 352 0.72%

* "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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