New driver registrations growing fast

The number of people from out of state being issued drivers licenses is growing in all four counties of the region compared to the previous year. Where are these new drivers coming from? The top U.S. states are California, Texas, Oregon, Florida and Arizona, though there are some variations among which county they move to. In King County, 11 percent of the driver registrations were from outside the U.S. states. Kitsap had the lowest rate at 2 percent. Regionwide, it was 8 percent. Licenses issued to drivers outside the U.S. states saw a sharp decrease in 2002, but are now more than double what they were in 2002, and the highest they’ve been since 2001. For King County, India is the biggest source of new driver registrations from outside the U.S. states. But in the region’s other counties, the top places outside the 50 U.S. states are Guam (Kitsap), American Samoa (Pierce), and Canada (Snohomish).