Seattle gained more than 17,000 people in just one year

New United States Census Bureau estimates released Thursday confirms what Seattleites already know: The city, and the metro, have a skyrocketing population. The census data shows that around 724,745 people lived in the Seattle city limits alone as of July 2017. While the bureau estimates the population has grown by more than 17,000 in the past year alone, the new number is more than 50,000 ahead of the 2016 American Community Survey five-year estimates, and a climb of more than 116,000 people since the full 2010 census.

For those keeping track: That’s a 2.5 percent growth in just one year, and nearly 19 percent growth since 2010. King County-wide, the population has grown to 2.19 million, compared to 1.93 million in 2010, for a 13.5 percent growth.

Meanwhile, while housing stock in King County—and throughout most of Washington State—is growing faster than much of the country, as of July, it hasn’t grown at the same pace as the population. Between 2010 and 2017, King County’s number of housing units grew an estimated 9.7 percent, from 851,962 homes to 934,552. And despite recent growth, according to census estimates, our building pace between 2010 and 2017 is slightly slower than it was between 2000 and 2007.

Courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau

On numbers alone, we’re the sixth-fastest growing large city in the country, based on 2016-2017 increases, behind San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Los Angeles. Percentage-wise, as calculated by Gene Balk at the Seattle Times, only Atlanta is ahead of us—but it’s close.

Since 2010, though, we had the fastest growth of any large city by nearly a full point.

• Census Bureau Reveals Fastest-Growing Large Cities [CB]
• 114,000 more people: Seattle now decade’s fastest-growing big city in all of U.S. [ST]