Dauphin 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 206,771 93.42% 216,635 91.48%
Spanish 4,981 2.25% 9,325 3.94%
Other Indo-European* 7,318 3.31% 6,399 2.70%
Asian Language** 1,615 0.73% 3,237 1.37%
Other 640 0.29% 1,205 0.51%
Total Population Age 5+ 221,325 100.00% 236,801 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,722 39.91%
Other Indo-European* 2,003 31.30%
Asian Language** 1,982 61.23%
Other Language 409 33.94%
Total 8,116 3.43%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,990 39.95%
Other Indo-European* 2,209 30.19%
Asian Language** 892 55.23%
Other Language 151 23.59%
Total 5,242 2.37%

* "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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