More than 2,000 parents and children gathered Tuesday at the Vickery Meadow branch of the Dallas Public Library, donning holiday sweaters and reindeer ears for the Festival of Lights, an annual event celebrating the region's diverse population.
Often referred to as Little United Nations, Vickery Meadow is home to many immigrants, including Dallas natives and refugees, with more than 30 different languages spoken among families. This is an example of the internal diversification of communications in North Texas. Of Dallas County's approximately 960,000 households, more than 381,000 use a language other than English.
“It's just a beautiful fusion of cultures, and that's why we like to hold events like this to bring everyone together,” said Vickery, a university preparation organization that helps seventh-graders prepare for university. said Janet Morrison Lane, executive director of the Meadow Youth Development Foundation. College graduates overcome language barriers.
According to the U.S. Census' new American Community Survey, this kind of diversity is becoming more common in Dallas County, where just 56.9% of people speak English exclusively, compared to 78.3% nationally.
832,000 Dallas residents ages 5 and older speak Spanish, according to 2018-2022 data released today. This total is about 12,000 more than the data from 2013 to 2017. The number of speakers of Indo-European languages (Italian, Greek and more than a dozen other languages) has increased by at least 10,000 people over the same period, according to the release.
In Vickery Meadow in northeast Dallas, nearly 50 percent of households in ZIP code 75231 speak a language other than English at home, according to the census.
In Dallas County, 56.9% of people over the age of 5 speak English exclusively, compared to 78.3% nationally.
According to a new table included for the first time in this ACS release, aside from English and Spanish, the most common languages in Dallas County are Vietnamese, Chinese, and French.
Michael Martin, director of the U.S. Census Bureau's Education and Social Class Branch, said language data on households was released this year because the bureau collected five years of data to provide information on trends.
Most Spanish speakers live to the west and east of Dallas, while most Indo-European and Asian language speakers live in north Dallas. The area's English-speaking population is more prevalent in University Park and Highland Park. Dallas County has more than 67,000 Spanish-speaking households with limited English skills. British households are the largest population group with restrictions, followed by Korean households, with around 1,200 of the 3,700 households having English restrictions.
In census tracts 98.04 and 96.10, near Farmers Branch and Love Field Airport, more than 90% of people speak Spanish.
Alexis Snow, Wells Fargo's vice president of philanthropy and community impact, announced the launch of the annual Festival of Lights, an annual festival for immigrant and refugee-dominated communities, to celebrate the holiday inclusively. We cooperated with the event.
“People have been resettling here for years,” Snow said. “They come here trying to figure out life.”
Snow said local organizations such as Literacy Achieves, Heart House and the Northwest Community Center have sprung up in an effort to serve non-English speakers in Vickery Meadow.
“When the younger kids come in, they have to translate,” Snow said. “So we try to have this event every year to just bring us together, see the beauty, see the richness of our culture, celebrate all of that, and give some gifts. .”
