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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spin Control

Census quick hits: Spokane’s No. 2; all Congressional districts must shrink

Congressional district populations from the 2010 census. (Jim Camden/The Spokesman-Review)
Congressional district populations from the 2010 census. (Jim Camden/The Spokesman-Review)

Some quick hits on the 2010 Census data as we work furiously to answer the Flakey Foont question "What does it all mean?"

Spokane remains the Avis of Washington cities, with Tacoma dropping into a more distant third. Spokane is at 208,916, Tacoma is at 198,397. (Seattle, not that anyone in Eastern Washington much cares, is at 608,660.)

Spokane County is the fourth largest county in the state, after King, Pierce and Snohomish. It has 471,221 residents, about 46,000 more than Clark County, although Clark grew nearly twice as fast over the last 10 years.

When the boundaries are redrawn, the average congressional district in Washington will have 672,454 residents. And we'll  have 10 instead of the current nine.

All the state's congressional districts have too many people right now. Eastern Washington's 5th District has 723,609 people, which is 51,155 too many. (All those fives seem to be working together.)

Central Washington is clearly growing much faster than Eastern Washington. The 4th Congressional District has 774,409 people, which is 101,955 too many.  Only suburban King and Pierce counties, and southwest Washington's 3rd District grew faster.

Click here to read more about the latest census figures.



Jim Camden
Jim Camden joined The Spokesman-Review in 1981 and retired in 2021. He is currently the political and state government correspondent covering Washington state.

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