Spokane Still No. 2 Largest City In WA: Census

SPOKANE, WA - Spokane remains Washington state's second-largest city, according to the latest population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the data, Spokane added about 7,000 people since the 2010 Census, bringing the total population to about 215,000. That's about a 3.8 increase between 2010 and 2016.

Seattle, the state's largest city, crossed a major milestone during that same period: 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 list of the top 10 largest cities in Washington, according to the latest Census figures:

1. Seattle - 704,352
2. Spokane - 215,973
3. Tacoma - 211,277
4. Vancouver - 174,826
5. Bellevue - 141,400
6. Kent - 127,514
7. Everett - 109,043
8. Renton - 100,953
9. Federal Way - 96,757
10. Yakima - 93,986

Image via Creative Commons