Seattle Grew By About 15,000 People In 2018: Census Data

SEATTLE, WA — Seattle is growing. Rapidly.

Washington's largest city added over 15,000 residents in 2018, according to new Census population estimates released Thursday. Just under 745,000 people now call Seattle home, making it the 17th largest city in the U.S. behind Charlotte, N.C., and Indianapolis. Denver is right behind Seattle at No. 18 with an estimated 716,492 people.

But the speed of Seattle's growth is more apparent seen over a longer time period. Seattle has added over 134,000 people since 2010. That's nearly half the amount of people who have moved to King County (294,000) over the last eight years.

Here are the population estimates since 2010:

• 2010 - 610,639
• 2011 - 623,050
• 2012 - 636,495
• 2013 - 654,224
• 2014 - 670,925
• 2015 - 688,156
• 2016 - 710,510
• 2017 - 729,601
• 2018 - 744,955

Overall, Washington gained over 110,000 residents in 2018 for a total population of 7,535,591. The population of the Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma metropolitan area now stands at 3,939,363, an increase of 499,554 people since 2010.

Seattle wasn't even the fastest growing city in the U.S. in 2018.

According to the estimates, more people moved to Phoenix than any other American city in 2018. Phoenix was among a handful of cities mainly in the West and the South that had the largest population increases in 2018.

New York City remains America’s most populous city but more than 39,000 residents fled the Big Apple in 2018, the figures show. On the country’s opposite coast, Los Angeles — the second-most populous city — gained nearly 8,500 residents.

San Antonio, Fort Worth, Seattle and Charlotte rounded out the top five cities with the largest population increases.

Ten communities in America exceeded the 50,000-population mark in 2018 while another three crossed the 100,000-population mark.

Overall, the 15 cities with the largest population increases in 2018 were:

• Phoenix, Arizona
• San Antonio, Texas
• Fort Worth, Texas
• Seattle
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Austin, Texas
• Jacksonville, Florida
• San Diego, California
• Denver, Colorado
• Frisco, Texas
• Columbus, Ohio
• Henderson City, Nevada
• McKinney, Texas
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Miami, Florida

To see more Census figures for Puget Sound or other cities, head to the American FactFinder website.