Regional growth slows, but carries on despite pandemic

The Washington State Office of Financial Management just released their updated county and city population numbers for 2021 and several new trends have emerged:

• The region continues to grow, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit at a distinctly slower pace
• Across counties, King County saw the greatest amount of growth, with an average of 48 new residents per day
• Seattle alone saw about 15 new residents per day

Overall, the central Puget Sound region grew by 36,400 last year. To put that in perspective, during the high-growth years before the pandemic, the region grew between 55,000 and 86,000 per year.

Of the region’s four counties, King County saw the highest number of total new residents with an estimated 17,375 new residents. However, Snohomish showed the highest growth rate with an estimated population increase of 1.2%.

Not surprisingly, Seattle was the city with the highest number of new residents with 5,380 added in the last year. Everett, Lake Stevens, Kent and Bonney Lake were also in the top five for the region.

In terms of growth rate, Black Diamond saw the most growth with a whopping 13.2% increase since last year. Edgewood was in second place at 6.3% and Bonney Lake, Sultan and Arlington were all in the top five for growth rate.