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Orange 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 23,355 96.74% 25,800 96.89%
Spanish 136 0.56% 144 0.54%
Other Indo-European* 559 2.32% 623 2.34%
Asian Language** 20 0.08% 37 0.14%
Other 71 0.29% 23 0.09%
Total Population Age 5+ 24,141 100.00% 26,627 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 49 34.03%
Other Indo-European* 146 23.43%
Asian Language** 4 10.81%
Other Language 5 21.74%
Total 204 0.77%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 30 22.06%
Other Indo-European* 128 22.90%
Asian Language** 6 30.00%
Other Language 4 5.63%
Total 168 0.70%

* "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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