Bellingham is no longer the state’s 13th largest city. Here’s how its population changed
After it lost people two years ago, only one city within Washington state saw a larger population increase than Bellingham last year, according to new estimates released Wednesday by the Office of Financial Management. Whatcom County, also, was among the fastest growing in the state.
Bellingham grew by an estimated 4,050 people between April 1, 2021, and April 1, 2022, the state reported, surging 4.5% to 93,910 people. That comes a year after the state estimated the city’s population dropped by 1,622 people (1.8%) in its 2021 estimates.
The only city to grow more than Bellingham last year? Seattle, which saw its estimate climb by 20,100 people, but that only represented a 2.7% growth.
A big part of the reason for Bellingham’s growth, according to an OFM news release Wednesday, June 29, announcing the release of the 2022 estimates, was the return of Western Washington University students to campus after COVID-19 forced them to return home in the spring of 2020.
Bellingham still grew by 2.7% (2,428 people) in the two years since the 2020 estimates, which represents the sixth-highest growth rate during that period among the state’s cities with populations of at least 75,000 people.
Bellingham’s growth was enough to push the city past Kirkland and into the largest dozen in the state, the data showed, after it was 13th largest the past two years.
Whatcom County, as a whole, remained the ninth largest among the state’s 39 counties, with 231,650 people calling it home, according to the estimates. That was an increase of 2.4% (5,350 people), which was the third-fastest rate in the state behind only Whitman County (7.2%) and Kittitas County (4.4%).
That came a year after Whatcom’s population shrank 0.2% (547 people).
The 2022 population estimates also showed:
▪ Lynden remained the second-largest city in Whatcom County with 16,150 people — a 1.4% growth (220 people) over the 2021 estimates.
▪ Ferndale remained right behind with 15,970 people — a 2.6% growth (400 people) over the 2021 estimates.
▪ Blaine grew by 1.8% (110 people) to a population of 6,130.
▪ Everson grew by 4.3% (125 people) to a population of 3,060.
▪ Sumas saw no estimated growth with its population staying at 1,740.
▪ Nooksack grew by 3.0% (45 people) to a population of 1,560.
▪ Unincorporated portions of Whatcom County grew by 0.4% (400 people), and now stands at 93,130 people, which represents 40.2% of the county’s total population. Overall, Whatcom’s cities grew at a faster rate (3.7%) than unincorporated portions of the county.
The state grew by 97,400 people last year and now stands at 7,864,400 people, according to the release, as Washington’s population grew by 1.3%, compared to a 0.8% increase the year before.
“The COVID-19 crisis continues to impact the population estimates,” the release states. “We saw a large rebound in 2021 population counts that stemmed from fewer people living together in group quarters. However, that is not the case in all cities. We found that prison population continued to decline and people living in college housing has not entirely recovered.’
People moving to the region is the main reason for the state’s growth, according to the release, as it accounted for 86% of the increase, with natural increase (births minus deaths) making up the other 14%.
“The state’s natural population increase of 14,100 hit historic lows, as births declined more slowly than in recent years but COVID-19 increased the number of overall deaths,” the release states.
