Rock 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 123,953 96.31% 133,296 93.90%
Spanish 1,723 1.34% 5,795 4.08%
Other Indo-European* 2,421 1.88% 1,689 1.19%
Asian Language** 508 0.39% 971 0.68%
Other 102 0.08% 199 0.14%
Total Population Age 5+ 128,707 100.00% 141,950 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 3,099 53.48%
Other Indo-European* 479 28.36%
Asian Language** 493 50.77%
Other Language 53 26.63%
Total 4,124 2.91%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 703 40.80%
Other Indo-European* 639 26.39%
Asian Language** 304 59.84%
Other Language 22 21.57%
Total 1,668 1.30%

* "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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