Asotin 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 15,917 97.73% 18,572 96.99%
Spanish 194 1.19% 312 1.63%
Other Indo-European* 128 0.79% 210 1.10%
Asian Language** 22 0.14% 44 0.23%
Other 25 0.15% 10 0.05%
Total Population Age 5+ 16,286 100.00% 19,148 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 86 27.56%
Other Indo-European* 76 36.19%
Asian Language** 25 56.82%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 187 0.98%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 49 25.26%
Other Indo-European* 12 9.38%
Asian Language** 0 -
Other Language 12 48.00%
Total 73 0.45%

* "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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