Seattle Population Exceeds 700,000 For First Time, According To US Census

SEATTLE, WA - Seattle crossed a major milestone last year: for the first time ever, the city's population exceeded 700,000. According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday, Seattle now has approximately 704,000 residents. In the year ending July 1, 2016, Seattle added more than 20,000 residents, which is the fastest rate of growth in the U.S.

Overall, Seattle was No. 5 on a list of the largest 15 cities for total population added between July 1 2015 and July 1 2016. Seattle still remains the 18th largest city in the U.S., behind Charlotte, N.C., and its 842,000 residents.

What's amazing about the 700,000 number is how quickly it happened.

Seattle only crossed the 600,000 population threshold around 2010. In the 2000 census, the population of Seattle was measured at about 560,000. Between 1980 and 2000 - a span of 20 years - Seattle added about 173,000 residents.

In other words, it took Seattle just six years to add about half the number of residents that the city added between 1980 and 2010. Seattle now has more residents than Detroit (713,000), which once had a population close to 2 million at its peak in the 1950s.

Seattle wasn't the only Puget Sound city that grew. Renton surpassed 100,000 residents for the first time ever, and Eastside cities like Bellevue and Issaquah experienced tremendous growth. Here's a look at how other cities around the region grew between 2015 and 2016:

Image Patch.com file photo