Anderson 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 62,278 97.19% 64,850 96.40%
Spanish 572 0.89% 1,171 1.74%
Other Indo-European* 760 1.19% 780 1.16%
Asian Language** 399 0.62% 431 0.64%
Other 67 0.10% 42 0.06%
Total Population Age 5+ 64,076 100.00% 67,274 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 450 38.43%
Other Indo-European* 319 40.90%
Asian Language** 252 58.47%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 1,021 1.52%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 278 48.60%
Other Indo-European* 136 17.89%
Asian Language** 208 52.13%
Other Language 30 44.78%
Total 652 1.02%

* "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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