Welcome to Spokane County!
Spokane County and environs form the 97th largest MSA by population, but combines the best of both a large and small city environment. A large, rushing river runs through the County, with lakes and mountains within a half an hour drive. The community is home for four universities, a diversifying economy, significant sports and cultural events.
Recent Updates:
In PEOPLE:
Share of Registered Voters Voting in November Elections Slipped in 2024
At 77%, the turnout for the elections last November in Spokane County was the lowest for a presidential election since 2000. It was also lower by two percentage points than the Washington average.
The highest turnout for presidential elections in recent years took place in 2008.
To view only the presidential election years, click on legend elements “midterm” and “off-year.”
Households with Broadband Access Has Remained Stagnant
Broadband penetration in Spokane County has recently stalled, according to the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census. The most recent estimate (2023) put the number of households with broadband at slightly higher than 167,000. This is down about 5,000 households from the 2022 estimate and about the same as in 2021.
The current share in the County is 76%, which is the same for the U.S. but below the state’s estimate is 80%.
In ECONOMIC VITALITY:
Per Capita Personal Income (PCPI) Rose Quickly in 2023
This measure of income represents an average of every individual in the County. Unlike the median household income measure, it is not an estimate, but derived from federal agency records.
In 2023, it stood at $58,630 for Spokane County. Between 2023 and 2022, the average resident gained the most in many years, over $4,000 in PCPI. The 2023 value here represents 84% of the U.S. PCPI but only 72% of the state average. A decade ago (2014), the ratios were 83% and 76%, respectively. The County, in other words, has matched strides with the U.S. but not with its own state.
Metro Area Regional Price Parity Reveals That Spokane Is No Longer Inexpensive
There is no Consumer Price Index available for most metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) in the U.S., including Spokane. (Stevens and Spokane Counties constitute the Spokane-Spokane Valley MSA.) A measure from the U.S. Department of Commerce helps to fill that void. The price parity index measures a metro’s relative costs: its own to the average of all 386 metros in the country. A value of 100 implies the MSA meets the all-metro average exactly.
In 2023, the index for the local MSA stood at 101, marking the 3rd year out of the last six in which the MSA’s value was above 100. For all years up to 2018, the Spokane-Spokane Valley MSA index was less than 100. The metro cannot claim to be an inexpensive location anymore.
As the graph reveals, the highest value for 2023 for regional metros was Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, at 113. Boise claimed the lowest spot, at 93.4.
To simplify the graph, click any legend component you would like to hide or remove.
Quarterly Taxable Retail Sales Show Little Growth
Taxable retail sales offer insights into the strength of a local economy. Quarterly values are helpful to gather more “real time” insights, although they still are released with a 5-month lag. The readings hold meaning for both the private and public sectors, with the latter’s revenues significantly influenced by taxable retail sales.
For the most recently available quarter, Q3 of 2024, the County’s sales were nearly $4 billion. In the first nine months of 2024, the average year-over-year increase was a mere 0.4%. This tepid change represents a huge drop from the early part of the pandemic and a departure from a much higher long-term, growth average.
As the graph conveys, the year-over-year changes here mirror those of the state, with a correlation coefficient over the entire span shown = 0.99.
Share of Residents Employed Outside County Continues to Rise
The traditional definition of this measured covered those who commute by vehicle to a neighboring county. Now the definition encompasses remote workers, whose office is physically located in another county.
As the graph reveals, the long-term trend of these workers is strongly upward. The most recent estimate, for 2022, puts the number of County residents with this work arrangement at about 42,500, or a little more than one out of every five workers. A decade ago, the rate was about one out of every six.
In EDUCATION:
For years, high school students have had an opportunity to get a jump on college credits via a variety of options – AP classes, Running Start, or College in the Classroom. These programs, at a minimum, give the student a sense of college-level work, and typically serve to provide some college credit before the student has set foot on campus.
After years of steady growth, the number of public high school students whose records show at least one such course declined in the County in the most recent school year. About 11,100 students availed themselves of this opportunity, implying a rate of 44% of all public high school students.
Note that the County rate has been considerably below the average for the state.
Share of Classroom Teachers Race/Ethnicity Doesn’t Match the Make-up of Students
Increasingly, the make-up of Spokane County public schools is tilting toward kids of color. For example, the share of People of Color (POC) in Spokane Schools is 35%; Central Valley School District, 23%. Students of color can often be motivated to succeed if they identify with their teachers. One important way is through their race or ethnicity.
Yet, the instructional staff among all Spokane County public school districts is constituted largely of non-Hispanic Whites. For the 2022-23 school year, the share of the instructional staff taken by teachers of color was 5.5%. This is far lower share than throughout the state. As in the state, Hispanic/Latinos made up the largest segment of teachers of color here.
To simplify the graph, click any legend component you would like to hide or remove.
This measure is part of the set of climate measures in Spokane Trends. It considers the snowpack, the traditional “reservoir” of summer surface and aquifer water flows in the County. The measuring station is near Mt. Spokane, at an elevation of 4,700 feet.
The most recent snow year, 2023-2024, showed a cumulative water equivalence in the snowpack of 1,518 inches. This is the lowest total in a decade. Over the past 45 years, the graph makes clear that winter precipitation peaked in snow year 1996-97 and has consistently declined since then.
In HEALTH:
Share of Population with Food Insecurity was Up Recently, Reversing a Trend
Hunger still exists in America, and more specifically in Spokane County. Food security, as defined by Feed America, is defined as” eating diminished amounts of food at any particular meal or skipping complete meals due to the lack of financial resources to provide proper amounts of food for three meals a day.” It is not a measure put together from local foodbanks; rather, it is estimated from factors such as poverty, employment and income estimates. The data are compiled over rolling five-year periods.
For the most recent interval, the share of the County population with food insecurity was estimated at 13%. This was up sharply from the prior 5-year period, for which the estimate was 10%. The current value is about equal to the measure at the start of the last decade. The County share is currently approximately equal to the U.S. share but a bit higher than the state share.
To simplify the graph, click any legend component you would like to hide or remove.
Share of Adults Reporting Poor Mental Health Continues to Rise
This measure, from the Centers for Disease Control, estimates the share of adults (18+) who report that half the days in the last four weeks have been characterized by poor mental health.
For 2022, the most recent available year, the share for Spokane County was nearly 20%. This is nearly double the rate from a decade ago (2013). Recently, the County’s share has been 2-3 percentage points higher than the state average.
Residents without Health Insurance Offers Spokane Some Bragging Rights
A necessary, but not sufficient, condition to gain access to healthcare services is to be insured. Further conditions include an adequate offering of clinicians, one not always present, depending on the specialty.
Fortunately, any constraint to access due to the absence of health insurance appears modest in Spokane County. (This measure covers residents who have public as well as private insurance.) The current (2023) estimate from the American Community Survey shows 27,000 county residents without any health insurance. Or a rate of 5%. While a bit higher than in 2021 and 2022, the most recent results show lower rates than in the U.S. (8%) and Washington (6%).
Contrast these numbers with the pre-Affordable Care Act conditions. In 2013, for example, over 70,000, or 15%, County residents were without health insurance.
list updated 4.08.2025
The complete list of Spokane Trends can be found here.
About The Institute
The Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis is a research institute for applied regional research that provides easily accessible community indicator data. The Institute publishes nine community trend sites for thirteen Washington counties, all of which cover a variety of factors like economic vitality, health, housing, and more. The Institute’s work is aimed to promote data-based decision making and provide readily available and extensive data for communities across Washington state.
