Demographics of Seattle

Seattle is Growing Faster than Expected

From 1960-1980 Seattle saw an 11% decrease in population. That trend reversed in 1980 and hasn't slowed down since. The City of Seattle’s comprehensive plan to deal with an estimated population growth of 72,000 over a twenty year span (1994-2014) needs to be reevaluated after the growth from 1994-2000 alone accounted for 45% of the twenty year total.

Population of Seattle Washington (2000)

563,374

Women 28,2401 (50.13%)

Male 28,0973 (49.87%)

Seattle reached an all time high population in 2000, surpassing its previous high mark set in 1960.

Seattle Population Growth

Click to See Graph

Racial/Ethnic Breakdown

Race	Seattle	King County	Washington State
White	394,889 (70.1%)	1,315,507 (75.7%)	4,821,823 (81.8%)
African American	47,541 (8.4%)	93,875 (5.4%)	190,267 (3.2%)
American Indian and Alaska Native	5,659 (1.0%)	15,922 (0.9%)	93,301 (1.6%)
--American Indian	3,141	9,921	70,646
--Alaska Native	967	2,292	6,621
--Other	1,551	3,709	16,034
Asian:	73,910 (13.1%)	187,745 (10.8%)	322,335 (5.5%)
Asian Indian	2,843	15,287	23,992
Chinese	19,415	45,018	59,914
Filipino	15,867	33,714	65,373
Japanese	8,979	21,455	35,985
Korean	4,863	20,005	46,880
Vietnamese	11,943	27,484	46,149
Other Asian	10,000	24,242	44,042
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	2,804 (0.5%)	9,013 (0.5%)	23,953 (0.4%)
Native Hawaiian	409	1,506	4,883
Guamanian or Chamorro	364	1,028	5,823
Samoan	1,391	4,182	8,049
Other Pacific Islander	640	2,297	5,198
Other race	13,423 (2.5%)	44,473 (2.6%)	228,923 (3.9%)
Two or more races	25,148 (4.5%)	70,499 (4.1%)	213,519 (3.6%)
TOTAL population	563,374	1,737,034	5,894,121
Hispanic/Latino and Country of Origin*	29,719 (5.3%)	95,242 (5.5%)	441,509 (7.5%)
Mexican	17,886	62,369	329,934
Puerto Rican	1,466	4,214	16,140
Cuban	759	1,792	4,501
Other Hispanic or Latino	9,608	26,867	90,934

English Only	79.8%
Other Language	20.2%
Spanish	4.2%
Other Indo-European	4.0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	10.5%
Other	1.3%

Minority Distribution--(Click for charts on where in Seattle minority populations are located!)

Minority Growth

Asian Americans make up the largest minority group in Seattle, comprising 13.1% of the population. African Americans make up 8.4%, well below the national average. The large population boom in Seattle can largely be attributed to a new influx of minorities. Of the 47,115 new Seattle residence (from last census), 11,000 are Hispanic and nearly 17,000 are Asian or Pacific Islander.

Seattle Median Household Income by Race

	White/Non Latino	Black	Hispanic	Asian/Pacific Islander	American Indian	Seattle Overall
1989 Income	$43,720	$28,997	$36,559	$38,828	$27,345	$41,696
1999 Income	$49,994	$32,042	$35,699	$39,016	$30,035	$45,736

Income Change

White/Non Latino Seattleites saw a 14% growth in their median income throughout the nineties. African Americans and American Indians saw an 11% and 14% increase respectively. The Asian population remained about the same. The key minority statistic in this category of demographics is the Hispanic population, who saw a 2% drop in income in Seattle and a 4% drop in the state of Washington.

Click here to see percent income change!

Sexual Minorities

Seattle is home to a budding homosexual community. Same-sex couples now make up almost five percent of all the city's couples.

Seattle ranks second in the percentage of same-sex households for cities over 100,000 population. (The Census Bureau has yet to release data for 25 states)

Sources

http://www.seattle.gov/

http://www.cityofseattle.net/dclu/demographics/popsize_growth.asp

http://www.census.gov/

This site was created by Ryan Raymond for Dr. Rodd Freitag's Group and Minority Politics

April 29, 2004