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Bell 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 147,077 85.10% 178,356 82.27%
Spanish 16,441 9.51% 26,048 12.02%
Other Indo-European* 5,418 3.13% 6,562 3.03%
Asian Language** 3,661 2.12% 5,283 2.44%
Other 232 0.13% 544 0.25%
Total Population Age 5+ 172,829 100.00% 216,793 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 8,672 33.29%
Other Indo-European* 1,311 19.98%
Asian Language** 2,221 42.04%
Other Language 149 27.39%
Total 12,353 5.70%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 5,631 34.25%
Other Indo-European* 1,235 22.79%
Asian Language** 1,655 45.21%
Other Language 38 16.38%
Total 8,559 4.95%

* "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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