Sheridan 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 21,245 96.08% 23,823 94.77%
Spanish 357 1.61% 746 2.97%
Other Indo-European* 456 2.06% 439 1.75%
Asian Language** 22 0.10% 65 0.26%
Other 31 0.14% 64 0.25%
Total Population Age 5+ 22,111 100.00% 25,137 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 208 27.88%
Other Indo-European* 81 18.45%
Asian Language** 33 50.77%
Other Language 18 28.13%
Total 340 1.35%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 103 28.85%
Other Indo-European* 135 29.61%
Asian Language** 20 90.91%
Other Language 13 41.94%
Total 271 1.23%

* "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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