New population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau are out. The estimates, which attempt to pinpoint the population of each state, county and metropolitan area as of July 1, 2023, say that Washington state’s population grew by over 28,000 people last year. These counties led the way.
Fastest-growing WA counties by total number
- As the biggest county in Washington by far, it should come as no surprise that King County added the most residents in 2023, even though it only grew by 0.3%. The county, home to the state’s biggest city of Seattle, saw its population grow to 2,271,380, from 2,265,311 last year.
- Located just over the Washington state side of the border north of Portland, Clark County added 4,413 people in 2023, bringing its population to 521,150.
- Snohomish County added the third most residents with 4,309. Its total population rose to 844,761, ensuring the Everett-area county, which is sandwiched between Seattle in the south and Bellingham in the north, remained the third-largest in the state.
- Benton County grew by 2,390 people in 2023, making the eastern Washington county the fourth-fastest growing in the state. Home to 215,219 people who live and work in the Tri-Cities area, it’s the tenth-largest county in the state.
- Washington’s second-largest county, Pierce, grew by just over 2,200 people in 2023. The home county of the cities of Tacoma and Puyallup, it now has 928,696 residents.
Fastest-growing WA counties by percentage
- Of counties with populations over 100,000, Benton County grew at the highest rate, 1.12%, followed closely by central Washington’s Grant County at 1.08%. Clark County was right behind at 0.9%.
- Pend Oreille, a county of 14,361 people just north of Spokane, and Wahkiakum, the third-smallest county in the state with 4,765 residents, are the fastest-growing counties in Washington if you go by percentage. Both grew by 1.6% in 2023. Skamania County was right behind them at 1.5%. All three have populations under 15,000, though, so a high growth rate doesn’t necessarily mean all that many new people.
WA has high migration
- Washington is losing people to other U.S. states at a high rate: 15,276 more people moved out of the state than into it from July 2022-July 2023. The Seattle area was almost single-handedly responsible for that. King County lost 20,431 more residents to other states than it gained.
- That was effectively canceled out by international migration. The state gained nearly 29,000 more migrants than it lost. King County led the push with a net international migration of 18,815. Not a single county in the state lost more residents to international migration than it gained.
- 14,860 more people were born in the state than died between July of 2022 and July of 2023.
- The Census Bureau also released its population estimates for each metropolitan area in the U.S. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area was the 15th biggest with an estimated population of 4,044,837 million.
- Washington’s total population in 2023 was 7,812,880, up from 7,784,477 last year.
