Demographics of Seattle
Encyclopedia
Population
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 2,593.5/km² (6,717.0/mi²). There were 270,524 housing units at an average density of 1,245.4/km² (3,225.4/mi²).
During the day, incoming commuters increase Seattle's population by over 160,000 people. This makes the city's daytime population rise from about 560,000 to over 720,000 according to estimates based on the 2000 Census.
The racial makeup
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
of the city in 2004 is 67.1% White
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
, 16.6% Asian
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
, 10.0% Black
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, 1.0% Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, 0.9% Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander American
Pacific Islander Americans, also known as Oceanian Americans, are residents of the United States with original ancestry from Oceania. They represent the smallest racial group counted in the United States census of 2000. They numbered 874,000 people or 0.3 percent of the United States population...
, 2.3% from other races, and 3.4% from two or more races
Multiracial American
Multiracial Americans, US residents who identify themselves as of "two or more races", were numbered at around 9 million, or 2.9% of the population, in the census of 2010. However there is considerable evidence that the real number is far higher. Prior to the mid-20th century many people hid their...
. 6.3% of the population is Hispanic or Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
of any race. Amongst the city's white population, 11.3% were of German
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
, 9.1% Irish
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
, 8.1% English
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
and 5.0% Norwegian
Norwegian American
Norwegian Americans are Americans of Norwegian descent. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the later half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 million Norwegian Americans according to the most recent U.S. census, and...
ancestry according to Census 2000.
There were 258,499 households out of which 17.9% had children above the age of 18 living with them, 32.7% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 56.1% were non-families. 40.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.87.
In the city the population was spread out with 15.6% under the age of 18, 11.9% from 18 to 24, 38.6% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 12.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 99.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $45,736, and the median income for a family was $62,195. Males had a median income of $40,929 versus $35,134 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $30,306. 11.8% of the population and 6.9% of families were below the poverty line as were 13.8% were under the age of 18 and 10.2% are 65 or older.
While Seattle's African-American population is relatively small, it is largely concentrated in the Central District and Rainier Valley
Rainier Valley, Seattle, Washington
The Rainier Valley neighborhood in Seattle, is located east of Beacon Hill; west of Mount Baker, Seward Park, and Leschi; south of the Central District and First Hill; and north of the city line...
neighborhoods.
In addition, the city has seen a major uptick in immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
in recent decades. The foreign-born population increased 40 percent between the 1990 and 2000 census. Although the 2000 census shows only 5.28% of the population as Hispanic or Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
of any race, Hispanics are believed to be the most rapidly growing population group in Washington State, with an estimated increase of 10% just in the years 2000–2002. The Asian population has also been growing and is focused mainly on the International District and Beacon Hill neighborhoods. The city is also seeing a large increase in Somali
Somali people
Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
immigrants.
Housing and homeless issues
Estimates of Seattle's homeless population put the number somewhere around 6,000 to 8,000 people; up to 1,000 are children and young adults.Seattle's relatively mild winters may lure homeless people from cities with colder winters.
In March 2004, Seattle was recognized in a report released by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government...
as one of the seven cities in the United States that are leading the way toward reducing chronic homelessness. (The other cities are Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
; Boston; Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
; Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
; Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
; and San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
.) Many of the services cited are funding fairly traditional programs, such as homeless shelter
Homeless shelter
Homeless shelters are temporary residences for homeless people which seek to protect vulnerable populations from the often devastating effects of homelessness while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact on the community...
s, emergency shelter
Emergency shelter
Emergency shelters are places for people to live temporarily when they can't live in their previous residence, similar to homeless shelters. The main difference is that an emergency shelter typically specializes in people fleeing a specific type of situation, such as natural or man-made disasters,...
s, low-income housing, and hygiene program
Hygiene program
Hygiene programs are ways of providing basic hygiene facilities to homeless people. Some are stand-alone hygiene centers, while others are at locations that also provide other services to the homeless...
s. Also, the Community Psychiatric Clinic in Seattle provides housing for about 5,000 homeless mentally ill
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
clients per year. There are also private shelters, soup kitchen
Soup kitchen
A soup kitchen, a bread line, or a meal center is a place where food is offered to the hungry for free or at a reasonably low price. Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, they are often staffed by volunteer organizations, such as church groups or community groups...
s, and food bank
Food bank
A food bank or foodbank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes mostly donated food to a wide variety of agencies that in turn feed the hungry. The largest sources of food are for-profit growers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers who in the normal course of business have...
s. The Seattle Housing Authority
Seattle Housing Authority
The Seattle Housing Authority is the department of government of the city of Seattle, Washington, responsible for public housing for low-income, elderly, and disabled residents. SHA serves more than 25,500 people, just under a third of whom are children, through around 5,200 HUD units, 1,000 units...
also provides 5,300 low-income public housing
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
units for over 24,000 residents. Its first development, Yesler Terrace (1942), was the first public housing development in Washington and the first integrated
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
such development in the country.
Seattle also has some more innovative programs run by nonprofit groups. Real Change
Real Change
Real Change is a weekly street newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is sold by the poor, many of whom are homeless, providing them an alternative to panhandling. It is written and produced, however, by professional staff, and covers mainstream news as well as homelessness issues...
is a street newspaper
Street newspaper
Street newspapers are newspapers or magazines sold by homeless or poor individuals and produced mainly to support these populations. Most such newspapers primarily provide coverage about homelessness and poverty-related issues, and seek to strengthen social networks within homeless communities...
sold by homeless individuals to provide them an income without panhandling. FareStart
FareStart
FareStart is a non-profit, social entrepreneurial organization in Seattle, Washington, USA, that operates a unique job placement and training program benefiting homeless and disadvantaged men, women, and youth...
provides job training and placement in the food preparation industry and provides food service in the Seattle Central Library
Seattle Central Library
The Seattle Public Library's Central Library is the flagship library of The Seattle Public Library system. The 11-story glass and steel building in downtown Seattle, Washington was opened to the public on Sunday, May 23, 2004...
. The Homelessness Project
The Homelessness Project
The Homelessness Project , based in Seattle helps homeless families secure and keep permanent, stable housing. The Homelessness Project started in 1989 with 2 transitional houses....
, Seattle Youth Garden Works
Seattle Youth Garden Works
Seattle Youth Garden Works, a non-profit organization in Seattle, Washington, USA, empowers homeless and under-served youth. SYGW was founded in 1995 by Margaret Hauptman. In 2010, Seattle Youth Garden Works merged with Seattle Tilth....
and YMCA's Working Zone help the homeless get training, jobs and housing.
Seattle has also provided some of the locations for the series of homeless encampments known as Tent City
Tent City
A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents. Informal tent cities may be set up without authorization by homeless people or protesters. As well, state governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house refugees, evacuees, or soldiers...
. Tent Cities are largely self-policing, with strict regulations, such as no alcohol, no drugs, and segregated areas for families, men, and women.