The four-county central Puget Sound region gained 68,740 people over the last year. The region’s total population is now 4.2 million. Since 2010, the region has gained more than 500,000 new residents.

That’s according to the Washington State Office of Financial Management, which just released its 2019 population estimates for every city and county.

By the numbers, the city with the most gains was Seattle. Over the last year, the city added 16,900 people. How big was that? Almost half the growth in King County happened in Seattle. Also consider that the total number of new residents added to the other top 10 cities with the largest population gains was only 14,715.

After Seattle, Bellevue was number two in growth, with 2,900 new people. Third-place Tacoma added 2,300 people.

The fastest-growing place in the region last year was the Town of South Prairie. Adding 45 people since 2018 gave the town a 10% growth rate. The growth is likely due to expansion of the South Prairie Creek RV Park.

In second place was another small town, Granite Falls, which grew at nearly 8%, adding 285 people.

Among larger cities, Tukwila’s population rose fastest, boasting a 5.7% growth rate and adding 1,130 residents, taking it to a population of over 20,000 people.

Two cities made both top 10 lists this year: Lynnwood and Tukwila.

Pierce County added more residents than Snohomish County for the first time since the 2011-2012 period, with 16,080 additional residents. Pierce was also the only county with an increased growth rate compared with the previous year, growing by 1.8%.

Snohomish County, which had been the fastest-growing county over the previous year, dipped to second with a 1.7% growth rate and 13,580 added to its populace.

King County added new residents more slowly than either Pierce or Snohomish, at a rate of 1.6%. Still, that was a 36,100-person gain since 2018, or 99 people a day.

Kitsap County had a 1.1% increase, netting 2,980 new folks last year.

– PSRC