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Smith 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 13,048 98.84% 16,217 97.98%
Spanish 71 0.54% 166 1.00%
Other Indo-European* 57 0.43% 104 0.63%
Asian Language** 23 0.17% 40 0.24%
Other 2 0.02% 24 0.15%
Total Population Age 5+ 13,201 100.00% 16,551 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 49 29.52%
Other Indo-European* 19 18.27%
Asian Language** 12 30.00%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 80 0.48%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 44 61.97%
Other Indo-European* 35 61.40%
Asian Language** 4 17.39%
Other Language 0 -
Total 83 0.63%

* "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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