Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000

From the Scout Report:
Drawing on information collected during the 2000 Census, this latest brief from the Census Bureau looks on language use and English-speaking ability across the US [PDF]. Authored by Hyon B. Shin and Rosalind Bruno, this 11-page report begins with a brief discussion of the questions asked about language use on the 2000 Census reporting form. The initial findings include the fact that approximately 47-million persons in the U.S. (approximately 18 percent of the total population) speak a language other than English at home. Not surprisingly, the number and percentage of people in the U.S. who spoke a language other than English at home increased between 1990 and 2000. Additionally, after English and Spanish, the languages most frequently spoken at home were Chinese, French, German, and Tagalog. The report also includes several helpful maps that detail (at the county level) the percentage of people who spoke a language at home other than English in 2000. [KMG]