{"main_topic":"census","sub_topic":"acs","topic":"english_ability_by_nativity","key":"census/acs/english_ability_by_nativity","version":"1.0.0","year_min":2020,"year_max":2024,"year_gaps":[],"update_frequency":"annual","detail_levels":["counties","districts","states","tracts"],"default_detail":"counties","path_template":"census/english_ability_by_nativity/year={year}/{detail}.parquet","grain":["year","county_fips","district_code","tract_geoid","citizenship_status","language_group"],"title":"English Ability by Nativity (ACS)","summary":"How many native-born and foreign-born people 5 and older speak English less than 'very well', by language spoken at home - ACS 5-year estimates down to the census tract.","description":"Ability to speak English among persons 5 years and over, by nativity and language spoken at home, from the American Community Survey 5-year estimates (detailed table B16005, Nativity by Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over), for Georgia at state, county, school district, and census tract geography, vintages 2020-2024: the share of native-born and foreign-born persons 5 years and over who speak English less than 'very well', by language group (English only, Spanish, other Indo-European, Asian and Pacific Island, other), with the four English-ability counts and 90 percent margins of error.","source":"U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates","source_url":"https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B16005?g=040XX00US13","endpoint":"/api/v1/census/english_ability_by_nativity","columns":[{"name":"year","type":"integer","role":"year","nullable":false,"label":"Year","short_description":"","description":"ACS 5-year vintage END year: 2024 covers the pooled 2020-2024 survey period. Consecutive vintages overlap.","valid_values":null,"example":2024,"unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"county_fips","type":"string","role":"fk_county","nullable":true,"label":"County FIPS","short_description":"","description":"5-digit county FIPS code (state 13 + county). Populated only on county-level rows.","valid_values":null,"example":"13135","unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"district_code","type":"string","role":"fk_district","nullable":true,"label":"District Code","short_description":"","description":"GCD school district code (FK to the education districts dimension). Populated only on district-level rows - Census unified-school-district estimates mapped onto the ~180 standard districts via the dimension's district_census_id.","valid_values":null,"example":"667","unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"tract_geoid","type":"string","role":"fk_tract","nullable":true,"label":"Tract GEOID","short_description":"","description":"11-digit census tract GEOID (2020 boundaries). Populated only on tract-level rows.","valid_values":null,"example":"13135050440","unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"citizenship_status","type":"string","role":"categorical","nullable":false,"label":"Citizenship Status","short_description":"Native vs foreign born (persons 5 and over); 'all' is both.","description":"Nativity of persons 5 years and over - the three-value subset of the shared citizenship_status vocabulary that B16005 publishes. all - Total population in the table's universe (native + foreign born). native - Native: born in the United States, Puerto Rico, or a U.S. Island Area, or born abroad to at least one U.S.-citizen parent. foreign_born - Foreign born: anyone who was not a U.S. citizen at birth (naturalized citizens + noncitizens). A hierarchy, not a partition: all = native + foreign_born, so never sum 'all' with its parts. B16005 does not split the foreign born by citizenship, so naturalized and noncitizen do not occur in this topic.","valid_values":["all","native","foreign_born"],"example":"foreign_born","unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":true,"metric_component":null},{"name":"language_group","type":"string","role":"categorical","nullable":false,"label":"Language Group","short_description":"Language spoken at home (Census four-group collapse, or English only).","description":"Language spoken at home by persons 5 years and over, in the Census four-group collapse: english_only = speaks only English at home; spanish; other_indo_european = other Indo-European languages (e.g. French, German, Russian, Hindi); asian_pacific_island = Asian and Pacific Island languages (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog); other = all other languages (e.g. Arabic and African languages). 'all' is the citizenship group's total and the default pin. A partition of each citizenship group's persons 5 years and over: all = english_only + spanish + other_indo_european + asian_pacific_island + other. English-ability counts, num_limited_english, and pct_limited_english exist only on the four non-English groups and their 'all' rollup; english_only rows carry only num_population_5_plus (not asked).","valid_values":["all","english_only","spanish","other_indo_european","asian_pacific_island","other"],"example":"spanish","unit":null,"value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":null,"key_metric_grain_contributor":true,"metric_component":null},{"name":"pct_limited_english","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Percent Limited English","short_description":"Share of persons 5 and over who speak English less than 'very well'.","description":"Persons 5 years and over who speak English less than 'very well' (well, not well, or not at all) as a share of all persons 5 years and over in the citizenship_status x language_group group (0-1), derived as num_limited_english / num_population_5_plus - the Census limited-English-proficiency definition. On language_group 'all' rows the denominator includes people who speak only English, counted as not limited (the Census standard all-language rate); on a non-English language row it is the share of that group's speakers. NULL on english_only rows and for empty groups.","valid_values":null,"example":0.0585,"unit":"proportion","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows (the ability question is not asked of people who speak only English at home), or the group has no persons 5 years and over in the geography (a zero population - a true absence, not suppression).","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"pct_limited_english_moe","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Percent Limited English Moe","short_description":"","description":"90 percent margin of error for pct_limited_english, derived from the count margins with the Census ratio formula: the subtraction form, with the Census addition-form fallback whenever the radicand is not positive, so a served margin is always greater than zero; a result above 1.0 is set to NULL as known-bad. A rate of exactly 0 or 1 (0 or 100 percent) instead takes the Census's own model margin for such estimates, 1.645 * sqrt(R * (1 - R) * AW / N) with R = min(2.3 * AW / N, 0.5), N the denominator and AW Georgia's average survey weight for the vintage (18 in 2020, 19 in 2021-2024): the ratio formula would give a 0 percent rate only the zero count's margin over N, about half the width the Census publishes. Never the headline metric.","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"proportion","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"No margin derivable: the rate is NULL (english_only row or empty group); the denominator is a controlled estimate with no published margin (the (all, all) row in 3-5 counties and their coterminous school districts per vintage, annotation -555555555 on B16005_001M); or the derived margin exceeded 1.0 (degenerate small-sample cell; a 0 or 100 percent rate's model margin exceeds 1.0 only on a group of 12 people or fewer).","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_limited_english","type":"integer","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Limited English","short_description":"","description":"Persons 5 years and over in the citizenship_status x language_group group who speak a language other than English at home and speak English less than 'very well' - num_speak_english_well + num_speak_english_not_well + num_speak_english_not_at_all, the rate's numerator. Always an exact sum of published B16005 cells (three on a published native / foreign_born x language row; up to 24 on the (all, all) row). Published zeros are real.","valid_values":null,"example":602706,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":"numerator"},{"name":"num_limited_english_moe","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Limited English Moe","short_description":"","description":"90 percent margin of error for num_limited_english (persons 5 years and over): the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares over the published member-cell margins, in one step, under the zero-estimate rule (of the member cells whose estimate is 0 only the largest margin enters; non-integer). Never the headline metric.","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_population_5_plus","type":"integer","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Population 5 Plus","short_description":"","description":"Persons 5 years and over in the citizenship_status x language_group group - the rate's denominator. The published B16005 cell on the (all, all) total (001), the native / foreign_born subtotals (002 / 024), and every native / foreign_born x language row; on citizenship_status 'all' rows with a specific language group, the exact sum of the native and foreign-born cells (derived).","valid_values":null,"example":10304177,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Never NULL in vintages 2020-2024 (B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate); NULL would mean a member cell carried one.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":"denominator"},{"name":"num_population_5_plus_moe","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Population 5 Plus Moe","short_description":"","description":"90 percent margin of error for num_population_5_plus (persons 5 years and over): the published margin (cast to float, never rounded) on published cells; on citizenship_status 'all' rows with a specific language group the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares over the native and foreign-born cell margins under the zero-estimate rule (non-integer). Never the headline metric.","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Controlled estimate: the Census fixed the total to official population estimates and publishes no sampling error for it (annotation -555555555 on B16005_001M) - only on the (all, all) row, in 3-5 counties and their coterminous school districts per vintage.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_speak_english_very_well","type":"integer","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Speak English Very Well","short_description":"","description":"Persons 5 years and over in the citizenship_status x language_group group who speak a language other than English at home and speak English 'very well' (self-reported). Published B16005 cell on the native / foreign_born x specific-language rows; the exact sum of those cells on 'all' rows. On a non-English language row the four ability counts partition num_population_5_plus; on a language_group 'all' row they cover only people who speak another language (they sum to the row's population minus its english_only speakers). NULL on english_only rows (not asked).","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_speak_english_very_well_moe","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Speak English Very Well Moe","short_description":"","description":"90 percent margin of error for num_speak_english_very_well (persons 5 years and over): the published margin (cast to float, never rounded) on published cells; the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares over the published member-cell margins under the zero-estimate rule on derived 'all' rows (non-integer). Never the headline metric.","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_speak_english_well","type":"integer","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Speak English Well","short_description":"","description":"Persons 5 years and over in the citizenship_status x language_group group who speak a language other than English at home and speak English 'well' (self-reported). Published B16005 cell on the native / foreign_born x specific-language rows; the exact sum of those cells on 'all' rows. On a non-English language row the four ability counts partition num_population_5_plus; on a language_group 'all' row they cover only people who speak another language (they sum to the row's population minus its english_only speakers). NULL on english_only rows (not asked).","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_speak_english_well_moe","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Speak English Well Moe","short_description":"","description":"90 percent margin of error for num_speak_english_well (persons 5 years and over): the published margin (cast to float, never rounded) on published cells; the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares over the published member-cell margins under the zero-estimate rule on derived 'all' rows (non-integer). Never the headline metric.","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_speak_english_not_well","type":"integer","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Speak English Not Well","short_description":"","description":"Persons 5 years and over in the citizenship_status x language_group group who speak a language other than English at home and speak English 'not well' (self-reported). Published B16005 cell on the native / foreign_born x specific-language rows; the exact sum of those cells on 'all' rows. On a non-English language row the four ability counts partition num_population_5_plus; on a language_group 'all' row they cover only people who speak another language (they sum to the row's population minus its english_only speakers). NULL on english_only rows (not asked).","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_speak_english_not_well_moe","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Speak English Not Well Moe","short_description":"","description":"90 percent margin of error for num_speak_english_not_well (persons 5 years and over): the published margin (cast to float, never rounded) on published cells; the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares over the published member-cell margins under the zero-estimate rule on derived 'all' rows (non-integer). Never the headline metric.","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_speak_english_not_at_all","type":"integer","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Speak English Not at All","short_description":"","description":"Persons 5 years and over in the citizenship_status x language_group group who speak a language other than English at home and speak English 'not at all' (self-reported). Published B16005 cell on the native / foreign_born x specific-language rows; the exact sum of those cells on 'all' rows. On a non-English language row the four ability counts partition num_population_5_plus; on a language_group 'all' row they cover only people who speak another language (they sum to the row's population minus its english_only speakers). NULL on english_only rows (not asked).","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null},{"name":"num_speak_english_not_at_all_moe","type":"number","role":"metric","nullable":true,"label":"Number Speak English Not at All Moe","short_description":"","description":"90 percent margin of error for num_speak_english_not_at_all (persons 5 years and over): the published margin (cast to float, never rounded) on published cells; the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares over the published member-cell margins under the zero-estimate rule on derived 'all' rows (non-integer). Never the headline metric.","valid_values":null,"example":null,"unit":"count","value_min":null,"value_max":null,"null_meaning":"Not applicable on english_only rows: persons 5 years and over who speak only English at home are not asked the English-ability question (by the Census definition they are not limited English proficient). Never NULL on any other row - B16005 publishes no annotation code on any estimate in vintages 2020-2024.","key_metric_grain_contributor":false,"metric_component":null}],"key_metric":"pct_limited_english","usage":"Star-schema fact table. Join the districts dimension on district_code; the counties dimension on county_fips; the tracts dimension on tract_geoid. Read directly with DuckDB over Parquet.","limitations":"Universe: persons 5 years and over (not households). pct_limited_english is the Census limited-English-proficiency share: persons who speak a language other than English at home and speak English less than 'very well' (well, not well, or not at all), divided by all persons 5 years and over in the citizenship_status x language_group group. On language_group 'all' rows the denominator includes people who speak only English, counted as not limited (the Census standard all-language rate); english_only rows carry only num_population_5_plus, because the ability question is not asked of them - their ability counts, numerator, and rate are NULL, never 0. citizenship_status here is all / native / foreign_born only (all = native + foreign_born; B16005 has no naturalized or noncitizen split), and language_group partitions each citizenship group (all = english_only + spanish + other_indo_european + asian_pacific_island + other), so never sum an 'all' row with its parts. The four num_speak_english_* counts partition the persons 5 years and over in a non-English language group; on a language_group 'all' row they cover only people who speak another language, so they sum to the row's population minus its english_only speakers. English ability is self-reported (or reported for the person by a household respondent), not tested. Languages are the Census four-group collapse (Spanish; other Indo-European; Asian and Pacific Island; other). The (all, all), native and foreign_born totals and every native / foreign-born x language cell are published; citizenship_status 'all' rows with a specific language group, all ability counts on 'all' rows, and every num_limited_english are derived as exact sums of published B16005 cells with Census sqrt-sum-of-squares margins under the zero-estimate rule (non-integer, served as floats). The total's margin (B16005_001M) is a controlled estimate with no published sampling error in 3-5 counties and their coterminous school districts per vintage (e.g. Clarke, Clinch, Taylor), so num_population_5_plus_moe and pct_limited_english_moe are NULL on those (all, all) rows. Published zeros are real estimates, not suppression: small language groups in rural counties and many tracts are 0 with a positive margin, and a NULL pct_limited_english on a non-English row means the group has no members there (a true absence). pct_limited_english_moe is derived with the Census ratio formula (addition-form fallback whenever the subtraction form's radicand is not positive, so a served margin is never zero; a 0 or 100 percent rate takes the Census's own model margin for such estimates); a degenerate small-sample margin above 1.0 is set to NULL. ACS 5-year period estimates: the year column is the vintage END year and each estimate pools five years of survey responses (2024 = 2020-2024). Consecutive vintages share about 80% of their sample, so the series is heavily smoothed - never difference overlapping vintages as if they were annual change. Estimates are survey-based and carry 90% margins of error (the *_moe columns); tract-level margins can be large relative to the estimate. All levels serve vintages 2020-2024 only, on 2020-vintage tract boundaries. State rows have NULL county_fips, district_code, and tract_geoid; county rows carry only county_fips, district rows only district_code, tract rows only tract_geoid. District rows cover the ~180 standard (city/county) districts only: the Census publishes school-district estimates at unified school district geography, which has no codes for charter schools, RESAs, or state agencies, and its few Census-only districts (e.g. the Fort Stewart military district) have no GCD district code and are dropped.","null_semantics":{"suppressed_to_null":false,"zero_is_real":true},"available_years":[2020,2021,2022,2023,2024],"schema_hash":"55cdc70f829391cf1c44f260f9b2ebecb1d2bae643676893ff7577169562479c","tags":["census","u.s. census bureau, american community survey 5-year estimates","english_ability_by_nativity"],"granularity_description":"One row per year, county_fips, district_code, tract_geoid, citizenship_status, language_group (geography columns are NULL at higher aggregation levels).","example_queries":[{"description":"Latest year (2024), counties detail","query":"SELECT * FROM english_ability_by_nativity WHERE year = 2024 LIMIT 100"},{"description":"District 667 in 2024","query":"SELECT * FROM english_ability_by_nativity WHERE district_code = '667' AND year = 2024 LIMIT 100"},{"description":"Filter by citizenship_status = foreign_born","query":"SELECT * FROM english_ability_by_nativity WHERE citizenship_status = 'foreign_born' AND year = 2024 LIMIT 100"}],"foreign_keys":[{"column":"county_fips","target_object":"counties","target_columns":["county_fips"],"attribute_columns_added":["county_name"],"scope":"global"},{"column":"district_code","target_object":"districts","target_columns":["district_code"],"attribute_columns_added":["district_name","district_census_id","district_type"],"scope":"domain"},{"column":"tract_geoid","target_object":"tracts","target_columns":["tract_geoid"],"attribute_columns_added":["tract_name"],"scope":"global"}],"filters":[{"param":"year","kind":"year_exact","type":"integer","multi_value":false,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"year_min","kind":"year_range","type":"integer","multi_value":false,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"year_max","kind":"year_range","type":"integer","multi_value":false,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"detail","kind":"detail","type":"string","multi_value":false,"enum_enforced":true,"values":["counties","districts","states","tracts"],"default":"counties"},{"param":"district_code","kind":"foreign_key","column":"district_code","type":"string","multi_value":true,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"county_fips","kind":"foreign_key","column":"county_fips","type":"string","multi_value":true,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"tract_geoid","kind":"foreign_key","column":"tract_geoid","type":"string","multi_value":true,"enum_enforced":false,"values":null},{"param":"citizenship_status","kind":"categorical","column":"citizenship_status","type":"string","multi_value":true,"enum_enforced":true,"values":["all","native","foreign_born"],"has_total":true,"total_value":"all","requires_single_value":false,"nullable":false,"null_filter_token":null},{"param":"language_group","kind":"categorical","column":"language_group","type":"string","multi_value":true,"enum_enforced":true,"values":["all","english_only","spanish","other_indo_european","asian_pacific_island","other"],"has_total":true,"total_value":"all","requires_single_value":false,"nullable":false,"null_filter_token":null},{"param":"district_type","kind":"dimension_attribute","dimension":"districts","column":"district_type","type":"string","multi_value":true,"enum_enforced":true,"values":["commission_charter","resa","standard","state_agency","state_charter","state_school","state_special"]}],"filter_hints":[],"values_endpoint":"/api/v1/census/english_ability_by_nativity/values"}