Seattle passes a milestone: 800,000 people and counting

July 07, 2025 / 11:04 am

caption: A view of downtown Seattle is shown on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, from Ella Bailey Park in Magnolia.

For the first time, Seattle’s population topped 800,000, according to new estimates from the state's Office of Financial Management.

The April 1, 2025 population estimate shows Seattle at 816,600, up 18,900 people from 2024. It’s the fifth year in a row that Seattle’s growth rate has topped 2%, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in the country.

Other notable milestones across the state:

Yakima topped 100,000 residents.
Marysville reached 75,000.
La Conner topped 1,000 residents.

Overall, the state’s population grew by close to 80,000 people, to just over 8.1 million. While city growth continues at a high pace, the state growth has slowed a bit from the previous decade. The average increase per year between 2010 and 2020 was more than 98,000.

caption: Pedestrians wait to cross 4th Avenue as a King County Metro Bus speeds by, on Saturday, February 22, 2025, in downtown Seattle.

The 1% state population growth reported in the latest OFM report is slower than last year. From 2020 to 2025, Washington state has grown 5.3%.

The report says net migration — people moving to Washington minus those leaving the state — accounted for almost 80% of the population growth in the past year.

More than 75% of the state’s growth occurred in its five biggest cities — Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, and Bellevue.