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Essex 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 7,979 97.60% 9,221 96.87%
Spanish 98 1.20% 118 1.24%
Other Indo-European* 86 1.05% 102 1.07%
Asian Language** 5 0.06% 73 0.77%
Other 7 0.09% 5 0.05%
Total Population Age 5+ 8,175 100.00% 9,519 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 49 41.53%
Other Indo-European* 35 34.31%
Asian Language** 30 41.10%
Other Language 5 100.00%
Total 119 1.25%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 23 23.47%
Other Indo-European* 19 22.09%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 0 -
Total 42 0.51%

* "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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