More than one in four Utah households in which no member is fluent in English live off an annual household income of $15,000 or less, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report.

Linguistically isolated households made up only about 3 percent of Utah households in 2000, yet those without a solid grasp of English were more likely to have less education and lower incomes, according to the recently released report based on the 2000 Census.

The report considers a household to be linguistically isolated if all members of the household age 14 and older have at least some difficulty speaking English.

It found that of 14,894 linguistically isolated households, 27 percent had an annual income of $15,000 or less, compared to 11 percent of all of Utah's 581,802 households.

Some 44 percent of linguistically isolated households made less than $25,000, compared to 23 percent of all households.

Nearly half of the linguistically isolated lacked a high school diploma or the equivalent. Some 60 percent were foreign-born individuals who had immigrated in the past decade; and only 14 percent of the householders had lived in the United States for more than 20 years.

University of Utah senior research economist Pamela Perlich said while the income levels are "stunningly low," the report is in line with her own research, which shows newly arrived immigrants tend to take jobs in the lowest rungs.

"The year of entry of the foreign-born population is very highly correlated with income," she said. "They are working very hard for very low wages. That is the plight of the immigrant."

Tony Yapias, director of Proyecto Latino de Utah, said the educational data was telling. He said many poor blue-collar immigrants have some understanding of English, but it can be difficult to understand complex language, such as that used at a doctor's office.

"There's definitely an income gap and there is an education aspect to that," he said. "Most of those who learn English the fastest are those who have a college degree or higher education level."

While most of the linguistically isolated householders were immigrants, some 2,370 were born in the United States. Forrest Cuch, director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs, believes many of those are senior citizen Native Americans living in isolated parts of San Juan County. Those seniors are sometimes linguistically isolated even from youths who speak only English.

"They usually don't have younger people to interpret for or take care of them. It is a problem," Cuch said. "The young people have to leave the reservations for jobs."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com