Question about s1601, Language spoken at home: If, for NY State, the one year ACS for 2016, s1601, shows that 69% speak only English (using the column titles), can we say that 31% live in households where English was not the only language spoken?
Here is why I am not sure whether this is correct
The above statement, the second part, implies that people in the household speak some other language AND speak English. But is that what the table is saying?
Down the column, cell titles are
Population 5 years and over
Speaks only English
Speaks a language other than English
Does this last cell title mean
[speaks a language other than English AND speaks English],
or
[ONLY speaks a language other than English]?
Across the rows, the cell titles are [Speaks English only or speaks English “very well”] and [Speak English less than “very well”]. Does this last group allow not speaks English at all?
So basically, are there these categories?
Speaks English only
Speaks English and some other language
Speaks only some other language
Or are the categories only
[Speaks English and some other language] or [speaks only some other language]
See where I am confused?
Thanks
Gene
Just for easy reference, here's a link to the page under discussion.
Your first question was about this section of the table:
Speak a language other than English includes people who speak no English and people who speak English and any other languages.
Then, further to the right,
The header "Percent of specified language speakers" indicates a different "universe" for those columns. You'll note that
Speak English only or speak English "very well"
and
Speak English less than "very well"
together add up to 100% of
Speak a language other than English
In short, there's no distinction made here between "speak English less than 'very well'" and "doesn't speak English at all"
The question as asked in the ACS allows for more nuance:
These ACS tables get down to that granularity: