Seattle's population boom has hit the brakes, new data shows
Since the 2010s, Seattle has been on a seemingly unstoppable growth streak - minus a small blip at the start of the pandemic. But according to the latest population estimates released by the Washington office of financial management, the Emerald City's turbocharged engine is finally cooling off.
Between April 1, 2025, and April 1, 2026, Seattle added 6,800 new residents, bringing its total population to 823,400. That amounts to a growth rate of around 0.8%. For many cities, it would be a respectable gain, but Seattle isn't like most cities.
To grasp how sharp a drop-off that is, it helps to look in the rearview mirror. By the state's count, Seattle's growth earlier this decade was impressive: a blistering 2.7% between 2021 and 2022, then 2.2% the following year. The city then held a 2.4% pace for both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 periods.
From 2021 to 2025, Seattle's annual net population gain ranged from 16,700 to 20,100.
But this year, the city's growth was only marginally better than in the first year of the pandemic, when the city added about 5,400 people, for a growth rate of 0.7%.
It's worth noting that the state's figures have consistently painted a more robust picture of Seattle's growth than the federal government's. The U.S. Census Bureau has been markedly more conservative in its estimates of the city's population change so far this decade.
For example, I reported in May that for the 2024-25 period, census data showed Seattle grew by 1.5%, bringing the population to 784,800. The state estimate for that period was 2.4%, for a total population of 816,600. And during the pandemic-disrupted 2020-21 period, census data showed a population loss in Seattle, while the state data showed a modest gain.
The Census Bureau and the office of financial management differ in methodology and rely on different data sources. Also note that the Census Bureau estimates are for July 1 each year, while OFM's are for April 1. The Census Bureau's 2026 population estimates won't be released until next year.
Falling from over 2% annual growth to under 1% signals a major shift for Seattle. The city's growth was just slightly faster than the statewide average.
While Seattle's growth cooled down, some of the suburbs did not.
The fastest growth rates in King and Snohomish counties were in more rural areas - Stanwood and Carnation both exceeded 4% growth for the year, and Gold Bar hit 3%.
Among cities in the two counties with populations over 10,000, Snohomish led the pack with a 2.6% increase. Woodinville followed, up 2.1%. Farther north, Marysville grew 1.6%, while Shoreline and Tukwila rounded out the five fastest-growing local spots at 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively.
Meanwhile, King County's second biggest city, Bellevue, experienced stagnation. Its population grew by a minuscule 0.2%, adding just 300 people to reach 158,300.
Overall growth in King County, as in Seattle, slowed down considerably, dropping from 1.4% in 2025 to 0.5% this year.
It's too soon to say whether the modest growth in Seattle was a temporary blip or the new normal. One thing we do know - the main driver of growth in King County has been immigration from other countries. Those numbers have fallen off, at least in part, as a result of the Trump administration's stricter immigration policies and increased border enforcement.
Washington's population grew by 61,200 in 2026, bringing the total to 8.18 million. The growth rate was a sluggish 0.75%, even slower than in the first year of the pandemic. In fact, you have to go all the way back to the 1982-83 period to find a slower rate - the state grew 0.72% that year.
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