Washington cities show steady growth

Many of Washington’s metropolitan areas have grown substantially since 2000, with the Tri-Cities, Bellingham and Olympia showing the highest percentage growth, the Census Bureau reported today.

The state’s smaller communities, called “micropolitan” areas, also showed solid growth, the agency said.

More than 5.6 million of the state’s 6.4 million residents live in metro- or micropolitan areas.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area contained about half the state’s population, estimated at 3.3 million in July 2007, the Census Bureau estimated. That was an 8.7 percent jump from the April 1, 2000, population of 3.0 million.

Tacoma, if broken out as a stand-alone metro area, had 773,165 people, the Census Bureau said.

The Tri-Cities metro area of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco grew 19.4 percent in that time, to 228,992 people, sixth largest in the state.

The Tri-Cities metro area includes parts of Benton and Franklin counties in southeastern Washington. The area is home to high-paying jobs at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and has a big farm and food processing sector. Tourism, anchored by numerous wineries, golf courses and youth sports, is also on the rise there.

The Tri-Cities area will likely soon supplant Yakima and Bremerton-Silverdale to become the fourth-largest metro area in Washington.

Yakima had 233,062 people, but grew only 4.7 percent since 2000. Bremerton had 236,732 people, but grew just 2.1 percent since 2000, slowest among the state’s metro areas.

Spokane, the second-largest metro area, had 456,175 people, up 9.1 percent.

Bellingham grew 15.7 percent to reach 192,999 residents. Olympia grew 15 percent to reach 238,555 residents.

Mount Vernon-Anacortes grew to 116,397 people, up 13 percent. Wenatchee grew 8 percent to 107,170 people. Longview crossed the 100,000 mark for the first time, with the state’s smallest metro area growing 8.1 percent to 100,467, an increase of 7,519 people from the year before.

The fast-growing Vancouver, Wash., area is part of the Portland metro area and was not broken out separately in the statistics. But recent county population estimates from the Census Bureau said Clark County, which includes Vancouver, had 418,000 people and grew by more than 20 percent since 2000.

Nationally, Seattle-Tacoma was the 15th-largest metro area. Spokane was No. 107, Olympia 182, Bremerton 183, Yakima, 185, Tri-Cities 188, Bellingham 212, Mount Vernon 311, Wenatchee 329 and Longview 340.

Micropolitan areas also showed steady growth. Ellensburg grew 15.5 percent and Shelton 14.1 percent between 2000 and 2007.

Moses Lake, with 83,047 residents, was the largest of those and grew 11.2 percent. Pullman (1.2 percent) had the smallest growth rate.