(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
(CNSNews.com) - In Stockton, Calif., which has just entered into Chapter 9 bankruptcy, 41 percent of the people do not speak English at home and 21 percent cannot speak it very well, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Data that the Census Bureau developed on what it calls the “social characteristics” of Stockton during the five-year period from 2007 to 2011, indicate that this city, located eighty miles east of San Francisco in California’s San Joaquin Valley, had a population of 289,926.
Of those 289,926 people, 76,869 (or about 27 percent) were foreign born, according to the Census Bureau. Of these foreign-born, 43,084 (or about 15 percent of this city’s total population) were not U.S. citizens.
Looking at the subset of Stockton's population that was five years old or older (264,713), the Census Bureau estimated there were 119,991 people who did not speak English at home. These 119,991 people equaled about 41 percent of Stockton’s overall population of 289,926 people and about 45 percent of the 264,713 people in the city who were five years old or older.
The Census Bureau also estimated that there were 59,577 people over the age of five in Stockton who “speak English less than ‘very well.’” These 59,577 people in Stockton who had not mastered English equaled about 21 percent of the city’s total population and about 23 percent of its residents who were five years or older.
The Census Bureau estimated that there were 76,869 people in Stockton who were foreign born. This included 33,785 naturalized U.S. citizens and 43,084 people who were not U.S. citizens.
That means the foreign-born population of Stockton (76,869) equaled about 27 percent of the city’s total population and the 43,084 non-naturalized foreign nationals equaled about 15 percent of the city's total population.
According to the Census Bureau, the two regions of the world contributing the largest number of foreign-born residents to Stockton were Latin America and Asia. 37,886 people in Stockton (13 percent of the total population) were born in Latin America and 35,820 (12 percent of the total population) were born in Asia.
While the Census Bureau data does distinguish between foreign-born residents who have been naturalized and those who have not been naturalized, it does not distinguish between non-naturalized foreign nationals who are in the United States legally and those who were not.