The Results

The Results

Four types of survey samples were used:

Telephone Survey - a population-based random telephone survey of community residents over age 18 (view select results)

Non-English Speaking Population Survey - a non-random survey via translators of non-English-speaking residents

Focus Groups - 27 focus groups of special populations, including homeless, youth and older adults

Community Leaders Survey - a mailed survey to 2,000 key informants and community leaders

Only the random-sample telephone survey gave us statistically valid information. The other three methods provided anecdotal insights, but their sample size was not large enough to use for comparison.

Regional Views

There is great similarity among the concerns expressed by survey respondents in the different regions of the county. Traffic is the number one issue in each of the three regions, with the south-central and west regions of the county rating it the highest. Development, growth and safety are all near the top of each region's list.

Below are some of the interesting findings taken from the random sample telephone survey. For complete survey information, click here:

Executive Summary (PDF)

Detailed Findings (PDF)

Note: These files require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. If you do not have this plug-in, it can be downloaded at www.adobe.com.

Transportation
Respondents would welcome more options for commuting such as carpools, vanpools and HOV lanes. Results showed that 32% think the county's general transportation system is adequate, while 23% think it's inadequate. However, 23% strongly disagreed that local roads are adequate and well maintained, and 19% strongly disagreed public transportation served the community well.

Notable:

38% of employed residents commuted to jobs outside of Snohomish County, and only 3.2% of them commuted on public transportation.

Compared to the whole state in 2000, Snohomish County drivers drove more than twice as many miles per lane mile of highway (228%).

28% of state and county arterials in Snohomish County are near or at capacity.

Youth
Respondents were divided about the adequacy of jobs and activities for youth. About one-third feel that there are enough after-school activities, and the other two-thirds feel that activities are lacking or they just don't know. Likewise, 25% of respondents believe we have too many teens on the street and 29% think teens have plenty of activities to keep them off the streets.

When responding to the statement physical and sexual abuse of children rarely happens in my community, a large number of respondents said they did not know enough to have an opinion. However, 24% strongly agreed with the statement, while 14% strong disagreed.

Notable:

30% of Snohomish County's population in 2000 was younger than 20.

10.4% of residents younger than 18 lived below the federal poverty level in 1997.

Because only 72-75% of education costs are state-funded, school districts rely heavily on local levies for funding.

Health
About one-quarter of the general population strongly agreed that alcohol or drug abuse poses a threat to the community and 23% strongly agreed that is a widespread problem in youth. In addition, sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy are considered to be issues (18% each); however, 31% did not know if teen pregnancy was an issue.

Environment
The general population has a fairly high opinion of their community's environment with more than 60% strongly agreeing that water is clean and safe, air quality is acceptable, and there are no issues with sewage or septic systems. Not all regions had the same opinions, however. More than other regions, the north-east region believed that drainage of flooding, sewage failure and dumping of garbage were problems.

Safety
Survey opinions around safety split down the middle with about one-fourth of the respondents feeling that crime is a concern in the community and about one-fourth feeling it's not. About half the respondents said they had no strong feeling about crime. Respondents in the Everett-Marysville-Highway 99 corridor were more likely to strongly agree that crime is a concern than were residents of other regions.

Notable:

Reported domestic violence peaked in 1998 at 4,606 cases, and declined to 3,929 in 2000.

In 2000, the rate of criminal offenses ranging from theft to murder was three times higher in cities and towns than in unincorporated areas.

Reported hate-bias crimes rose from four in 1995 to 14 in 2000-a 350% increase; 78% of these crimes were motivated by racial or ethnic bias.

Economic Development
Less than one-fourth (23%) of household respondents felt strongly about supporting expansion of commercial and industrial business in their community. On the other hand, 39% felt strongly that they would not support it.

Taxes
Survey respondents are willing to pay more taxes if the money will go toward public safety, meaning police and fire protections. They are also willing to increase taxes in order to fund schools. Parks, public health, libraries, roads and public transportation are also areas that people expressed a willingness to support with more tax money.

Notable:

Snohomish County's median household income is the second-highest in the state, following King County-yet 17.2% of our county's residents relied on state social or health services in 1999-2000.

Housing

Respondents overwhelmingly (89%) said they would welcome development in their community of senior housing. Also, 62% would welcome supervised group homes for people with physical or mental disabilities. Yet, only 46% survey respondents welcomed more affordable housing options. Regions of the county had different opinions with 52% of the Everett -Marysville-Highway 99 corridor region welcoming affordable housing, while only 37% of the west and south-central region did.

Notable:

Puget Sound ranks #8 in the United States for most expensive housing market. 22% of home sales in our county were affordable to low and moderate income households.

All the county's 8,500 subsidized housing units for low-income households are occupied. 7,000 households are on waiting lists.

Homeless shelters turned away 10,571 people in 2000 because of insufficient space. Of those sheltered, 55% were families with children and 25% were people with disabilities.

Focus groups

In addition to sampling the mainstream of the county, the assessment team listened to people with special needs--residents whose voices often are hard to hear. The team held 27 focus group discussions, asking about community strengths, community and family concerns, and ideas for improving community.

Focus group participants included senior citizens, tribal members, neighborhood groups, mental health consumers, shelter residents, parents of disabled children, intravenous drug users, youth, gay men, and service providers such as drug treatment staff.

Key Findings

Below are some of the key findings taken from the focus group discussions:

Community Strengths

Community strengths most often mentioned:

community involvement, collaboration, and norms

agencies that provide supportive services

recreation options

individuals

support for children and youth

Community Concerns

Community concerns most often mentioned:

inadequate or under-funded human services

discrimination

children and youth issues

medical and dental care

educational opportunities and schools

Top family concerns were:

isolation or lack of supports

children and youth issues

safety concerns

need for more family support

health or health care related issues

Suggestions

Ideas for community improvement:

increase human services and provide more funding

improve transportation

increase and improve services for children and youth

increase and improve schools and educational opportunities

educate/communicate with the community about issues

Community Leader Survey

The assessment team mailed surveys to 2,000 key community informants, including government employees, elected officials, community organizations, faith groups, schools and businesses. Because of a low response rate (19%) and the use of pre-selected lists, the results from this survey should not be interpreted to represent all key leaders in the community.

Key findings

Below of some of the key findings of the community leader survey:

Interestingly, most leader respondents do not see themselves as having a strong personal influence in shaping community decisions. Only 20% strongly agreed with the statement, 21% strongly disagreed, and 55% put themselves in the middle.

Community leaders consistently saw more social challenges than did the general population. They were less likely to strongly agree (28%) that racial or ethnic tension is rare whereas almost half (43%) of the general population agreed strongly that such tension is a rarity in the community.

Whereas only 23% of the general public would strongly support expansion of commercial and industrial business in their communities, 43% of the community leaders strongly agreed and were clearly in favor of such expansion.

Concerns

Community leaders' biggest concerns, listed in descending order:

Traffic

Social/health concerns

Cost of living going up

Development/planning

Employment/lack of jobs

Public transportation

Economic concerns

Population growth

Crime/safety

Schools/education

Lack of parks/recreation

Environmental issues

Lack of safety/police services

Non-English Speakers Survey

Through volunteer translators, non-English speakers answered the same questions used in the random telephone survey. Because the non-English speaking population was not a random sample and only 72 people were interviewed, results cannot be interpreted as representative of the non-English speaking population in Snohomish County.

Key Findings

Here are some of the interesting findings from those who participated in the non-English speakers survey:

Non-English speaking respondents' views on discrimination, racial tension and communication tend to differ from the general population to a greater degree than other issues. Only 13% strongly agreed racial tension rarely occurs compared to 43% of the general population.

Three-quarters (76%) of non-English speakers expressed some level of agreement that language differences are a problem while only 39% of the general population felt that way.

In general, non-English speakers rated best things about the community similarly to the general population, with geographic beauty and clean environment highest on the list, followed by friendliness and affordability.

Top leading concerns about the community are crime and safety-mentioned more than twice as often (24%) as the general population mentioned safety. While 54% of the general population feel safe walking alone at night, only 22% of non-English speakers agreed strongly. Non-English speaking respondents also are less likely to agree (28%) that a household with a gun is a safer home than did the general population (47%).

Cost of living (15%) and lack of jobs (14%) were also frequent mentions, much more often than the general population (3% and 2% respectively). Traffic, which was the number one concern for the general population, tied for fourth place with population growth, according to non-English speakers.

Community Assets

In addition to finding out what people think counts in our community, the assessment team identified community resources including citizens' associations, private businesses, labor unions, public institutions and nonprofits, such as hospitals and social service agencies.

The list of asset organizations included 68 labor organizations, 444 associations, more than 1,000 businesses, and 1,140 service providers-for a total of 2,678 local Snohomish County assets. The team sent inventory surveys to all of organizations, asking for details such as types of services they provide. The 214 who replied helped the assessment team develop a resource database. When complete, the database will be available on this Web site and on compact disk.

Demographics

Snohomish County is the third most populous county in the State of Washington, and one the fastest growing. Between 1990 and 2000, the Snohomish County population grew nearly 30%. In relation to the other Washington state counties, Snohomish County ranks number 3 in total population and number 7 in total population change from 1990 to 2000.

Although it should be noted that from 1995 to 2000, Washington state's population grew by 8.5%, while Snohomish County's population grew by 15.3%. The male to female ratio is nearly even with 303,209 males in comparison to 302,815 females. The 35-44 year old age group represents the largest group of people at 18.3% of the total population. The 25-34 year old group follows this at 14.6% and the 45-54 year old group at 14.3%.

According to the 2000 Census, racial and ethnic diversity in Snohomish County continued to increase during the 1990s. Given continued in-migration and the comparatively younger age distributions and higher birth rates in non-White and Hispanic groups, the trend toward greater diversity can be expected to continue. Snohomish County is clearly a society comprised of family, while 70.2% of the households are considered "Family Households". Of those households, 37.3% of them have children under the age of 18.

As the county population continues to grow, specific cities have begun to show significant signs of growth. As a result of flat population growth and annexation, the following cities have experienced greater than 100% growth in the last five years: Arlington (190%), Marysville (145%), Mukilteo (158%) and Stanwood (100%).

The State is predicting between 800,000 and 1.1 million people will be living in Snohomish County by 2025. Their low projection forecasts a 31.3% growth increase in the next 25 years, while the intermediate projects a 53.3% change and the high forecast projects a 75.4% increase in the population.