With 7,300 new, county population growth third in state
Washington reports the state added people at highest rate since 2008
By Stephanie Rice
Published: July 1, 2014, 12:00am
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This photograph, taken in May 2013, shows homes under construction in Ridgefield's Pioneer Canyon neighborhood. Population figures released Monday show Ridgefield was the second-fastest-growing city statewide from April 2013 to April 2014, with a growth rate of 8.8 percent. It was exceeded only by Bothell, whose 20 percent was largely fueled by annexations.Photo Gallery
Clark County’s population grew by 1.67 percent in a year, according to annual state population estimates released Monday.
Percentage-wise, Ridgefield was the second-fastest-growing city in the state.
Clark County helped drive statewide growth of 1.25 percent, the fastest one-year statewide increase since 2008, nudging the state’s population closer to 7 million, according to a news release from the Office of Financial Management.
The new estimates list Clark’s population at 442,800, up 7,300 people from last year. It remains the fifth-most populous of Washington’s 39 counties.
Only King and Snohomish counties had bigger gains. Three-quarters of the state’s growth was concentrated in the five largest metropolitan counties: King, Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane and Clark.
Between April 1, 2013, and April 1, 2014, the state’s population increased by 85,800 people, to 6,968,200.
More than half of the growth, 57 percent, was driven by people moving to the state, according to the OFM. The rest of the increase was attributed to natural population trends, meaning that there were more births than deaths.
Local details
Incorporated cities in Clark County all experienced growth, with Ridgefield leading the pack. Ridgefield’s growth rate of 8.8 percent was second only to Bothell’s — the city in the Seattle metro area grew by 20 percent due to a large annexation.
A rebound in home-building has benefited Ridgefield, where tracts of land were platted and readied for building prior to the housing market’s collapse.
Locally, Ridgefield was followed by much smaller growth rates in Battle Ground, Camas, Washougal, Vancouver and La Center.
The county’s lone town, Yacolt, had both the slowest and the smallest increase, growing by 0.31 percent, or five people.
Vancouver added 2,900 people in the past year to hit 167,400, and the city didn’t just swallow people from unincorporated areas. Only 584 of the “new” people were added by annexation, according to the state report.
In terms of size, Vancouver ranked third statewide in population growth, behind Seattle and Bothell. Bellevue, Pasco, Redmond, Renton, Auburn, Kennewick and Sammamish rounded out the top 10.
Thirty-six of the state’s 39 counties grew, and Clark was among 12 counties that grew by more than 1 percent, twice the number that hit 1 percent growth a year ago.
Only Columbia, Garfield and Wahkiakum counties experienced slight declines.
The OFM population estimates differ slightly from figures provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, which, as of July 2013, lists Clark County as home to 443,817 people. Differences in methods of collecting information contribute to the difference in the figures, particularly when it comes to breaking down population by cities and factoring in even the smallest annexations.
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