A linguistically isolated household is one in which no member 14 years old and over (1) speaks only English or (2) speaks a non-English language and speaks English "very well." In other words, all members 14 years old and over have at least some difficulty with English.

• English is spoken at home by over 87% of the residents in Pierce County.
• In Pierce County, according to the 2006-2008 (3-year Estimate) American Community Survey, there are over 44,000 households whose primary language is not English.  Of those, nearly 9,000 households (over 20%) are linguistically isolated. 

Compared to Pierce County, in Snohomish County 22% of non-English speaking households are linguistically isolated and in Spokane County 18% of non-English speaking households are linguistically isolated.

In other words, 1 in 5 non-English speaking households are linguistically isolated. 1 in 4 Asian and Pacific Island language speaking households are linguistically isolated while only about 1 in 12 households grouped in the “Other” language groups are linguistically isolated.