Welcome to Spokane County!
Spokane County and environs form the 99th 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:
Total Population & Annual Growth Rate
Washington State demographers released their estimates of Spokane County’s April 1 population in early July. The result: the county can now claim 559,400 residents. This represents a gain of 4,800 over the estimate of April 2023, or a 0.9% increase. Population percentage growth, however, has declined dramatically since pre-pandemic years. From 2017-2019, the average annual growth of the county’s population was 1.9% versus an average of 1.1% of the past three years.
While below the Washington state rate, the population growth rate in the county has been much higher than the U.S. average.
An area’s population can grow from two sources: the “natural increase” (births – deaths) and in-migration. In most counties of the U.S., in-migration is far more important. So, too, in Spokane. Between 2023 and 2024 (April), Spokane County picked up 4,450 new residents, according to Washington state demographers. This gain amounted to over 90% of the total population increase.
The total, however, is still considerably below the average of the prior decade.
Share of Population Eligible to Vote Who Are Registered Voters
Perhaps the most fundamental right (and obligation) of citizenship in the U.S. is the vote. This indicator measures the number of people in Spokane County who are of voting age who have registered to vote. Ideally, the indicator would exclude those prohibited from voting, such as resident aliens or most felons. However, these numbers are not precisely known, although we have some information on the former (see indicator 0.2.2). Without the exclusions in the denominator, the reported share is a bit lower than it really is.
With this caveat, the share in Spokane County in 2023 was about 83%. That’s considerably higher than the state rate, but lower than the county rate of 2020.
In CULTURE & RECREATION:
Total Accommodation Retail Sales and Annual Growth Rate
Measuring visitor spending isn’t easy, as consistent detailed surveys are expensive. Most of the spending categories of visitors – eating & drinking, entertainment, shopping, ground transportation—mix in spending by residents. Not so much with spending at hotels, motels, B&B and short-term rentals: most residents don’t book hotel rooms. Consequently, among the various categories of tourist spending, accommodations sales give a good idea of directional change in spending by visitors who are not “day-trippers.”
By that measure, 2023 was the best year for tourism on record: accommodation sales hit a peak of nearly $268 million. As the graph shows, there has been a complete recover from the plunge of activity in 2020.
In ECONOMIC VITALITY:
The majority of adults receive most of their income from work. Obviously, retirees don’t and depend on the two other sources of personal income: federal transfer payments and investment income. The size of average earnings from work provides an important marker of the vitality of the local economy.
In 2023, average annual earnings increased by about $2,000 among all workers in Spokane-based firms, to $61,668. That amounted to a gain of 3.6% over 2022. Since 2019, average annual earnings have gained nearly $11,500 in the county.
On an inflation-adjusted basis, however, the gains have been much smaller over the same interval: about $1,350.
In ECONOMIC VITALITY CONT.:
Net Jobs Created & Annual Growth Rate
A standard criterion of success of a local economy is the number of jobs created. According to the Washington Employment Security Department, the number of workers at Spokane County-based firms went up by nearly 3,800 in 2023 over the prior year. That represented a gain of 1.6%.
That percentage gain is lower than the prior two years, which reflect a dramatic bounce-back from the pandemic start in 2020. But it is considerably higher than the long-term rate prior to 2020, of 1.1%.
In EDUCATION:
Public High School On-Time Graduation Rate
Graduating from high school represents a milestone in a person’s life. The rate at which students graduate from high school also represents an important entry on a school district’s report card. This indicator measures the share of a cohort that starts in 9th grade who graduate within four years. (Cohorts are adjusted for exits and entries.)
For the cohort graduating on-time in school year 2022-23, the average among all Spokane County school districts was 86%. This represents a gain of about 5 percentage points over the past decade. The county average is also a bit higher than the most recent state average of 84%.
For many students, enrolling in college directly after graduation can help make the transition into higher education easier and more seamless. Starting in 2020 however, less students in both Spokane and Washington state have been making the decision to pursue college in the first year after finishing high school.
The gap between Spokane and the state became wider in 2022, with 2-year and 4-year enrollment seeing an increase across the state, but the enrollment of Spokane's graduating seniors into 2-year and 4-year programs decreased from the prior year.
In ENVIRONMENT:
Shares of Electricity Consumption by Type
With dams dotting the landscape of the Inland Northwest, one might think that hydro facilities provide most of the electrons “consumed” in Spokane County. While still the largest type of electricity produced & consumed in the county, hydro most recently (2022) accounted for 49%. That is down from a decade ago, when it was 55%. Hydro’s share in Spokane was also considerably less than the Washington average and has been so over the years covered by this indicator.
In contrast, natural gas figured more prominently here than in Washington. At 11%, coal’s share was a bit larger. So were renewables in the county, at 11% versus 10% statewide.
To simply the graph, click on the legend element you would like to remove.
In HEALTH:
Life expectancy is perhaps the most summary measure of public health. Access to care, quality of care, the incidence of chronic diseases, the rate of suicides, especially early in life – all figure in its calculation. Essentially, the measure captures the currently mortality rates and extends those over the lifetime of a newborn.
Over the past two decades, the trends for the U.S., Washington State and Spokane County have moved closely together, although Washington State clearly has shown higher life expectancy than the other two jurisdictions. In 2022, life expectancy rebounded from its 2021 low to 77.5. Expectancy here is now considerably below the value of 2019, and its decline from 2019 was steeper than for the Washington state.
list updated 08.20.24
The complete list of Spokane Trends can be found here.
New Intern Features
Drew Dillon
Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona
Major: Economics and Business System Analytics
Expected Graduation Date: Spring 2025
Post-graduation plans: Find a good job in a new city
After a few months of working on the Trends project, my favorite thing so far: The actual work for sure. What I do for The Insitute does not feel like work most of the time. I enjoy solving the puzzles that come with data analysis and there are lots of puzzles to be solved here. I also really enjoy the people I work with. Dr. Cullen and Dr. Jones are amazing, as well as my fellow interns. We make a great team.
Kellan Burns
Hometown: Spokane, Washington
Major: Computer Science
Expected Graduation Date: Spring 2025
Post-graduation plans: Start a career as a software developer
After a few months of working on the Trends project, my favorite thing so far: My favorite thing so far is seeing the real-life meaning of our work. The data we collect often tells a different story from what people expect, and I think it makes people look at the world a bit differently. I've already learned lots here, and I'm excited for this year with Dr. Jones, Dr. Cullen, and the other interns at The Institute.
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.