Census reporting the changes

Numbers are out. The detailed ones – down to precinct level – will need crunching for a while. The larger ones are clear enough. From the census, for Washington, the official stats, within an overall population of 6,724,540:

Data for Washington show that the five most populous incorporated places and their 2010 Census counts are Seattle, 608,660; Spokane, 208,916; Tacoma, 198,397; Vancouver, 161,791; and Bellevue, 122,363. Seattle grew by 8.0 percent since the 2000 Census. Spokane grew by 6.8 percent, Tacoma grew by 2.5 percent, Vancouver grew by 12.7 percent, and Bellevue grew by 11.7 percent.

The largest county is King, with a population of 1,931,249. Its population grew by 11.2 percent since 2000. The other counties in the top five include Pierce, with a population of 795,225 (increase of 13.5 percent); Snohomish, 713,335 (increase of 17.7 percent); Spokane, 471,221 (increase of 12.7 percent); and Clark, 425,363 (increase of 23.2 percent).

No real shock in any of that, though it does underline the growth in Snohomish and Clark counties. Although, the 10 most populous counties now are the same 10 from a decade ago, almost all in exactly the same order.

Much the same is true of cities: Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, Bellevue and Everett all keep their rank order from a decade ago. Oddly, Federal Way fell a bit in the rankings, with others moving up a little. The new city of Spokane Valley (near Spokane) debuted on the list as the state’s 10th most populous city (89,755 people).

The state was found to be 77.3% white, down from 81.8% a decade ago. It is 11.2% Hispanic, up from 7.5% a decade ago.