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Benton 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 60,745 91.40% 66,875 90.03%
Spanish 1,007 1.52% 3,027 4.08%
Other Indo-European* 1,734 2.61% 1,729 2.33%
Asian Language** 2,658 4.00% 2,284 3.07%
Other 318 0.48% 367 0.49%
Total Population Age 5+ 66,462 100.00% 74,282 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,365 45.09%
Other Indo-European* 377 21.80%
Asian Language** 1,110 48.60%
Other Language 130 35.42%
Total 2,982 4.01%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 313 31.08%
Other Indo-European* 418 24.11%
Asian Language** 1,617 60.84%
Other Language 125 39.31%
Total 2,473 3.72%

* "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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