Tom Green 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 68,946 75.82% 71,263 73.45%
Spanish 20,072 22.07% 24,188 24.93%
Other Indo-European* 1,133 1.25% 906 0.93%
Asian Language** 725 0.80% 586 0.60%
Other 57 0.06% 76 0.08%
Total Population Age 5+ 90,933 100.00% 97,019 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 7,705 31.85%
Other Indo-European* 200 22.08%
Asian Language** 193 32.94%
Other Language 12 15.79%
Total 8,110 8.36%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 7,873 39.22%
Other Indo-European* 216 19.06%
Asian Language** 312 43.03%
Other Language 12 21.05%
Total 8,413 9.25%

* "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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