Marysville among top U.S. cities for population growth

MARYSVILLE — This city is among the fastest-growing in the nation, according to the latest census figures.

Meanwhile, Snohomish County surpassed three quarters of a million residents last year, and Washington passed the 7 million mark.

Marysville was 45th in the nation in 2014 for one-year growth among 746 cities of more than 50,000 people, according to numbers released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

As of July 1, 2014, Marysville had an estimated 65,087 residents, an increase from the year before of 1,764 people, or 2.8 percent. The only Washington city that grew more percentage-wise was Redmond (population 59,285) at 3.0 percent.

Snohomish County last year had an estimated 759,583 residents after a one-year increase of 13,137, or 1.8 percent. Since the 2010 census, the county has added an estimated 46,248 residents, an increase of 6.5 percent.

Washington had an estimated 7,061,530 residents as of last July 1, an increase of 87,788, or 1.3 percent, from the previous year’s estimate of 6,973,742. The state’s population rank was steady at 13th in the nation, ahead of Massachusetts and behind Virginia.

Every 10 years, the U.S. Census Bureau tries to count every resident of the country. In the years between, the agency issues population estimates based on surveys and hard data such as births and deaths.

After annexations in previous decades, Marysville’s growth has been steady and organic in recent years. The city has grown 8.4 percent since the 2010 census, adding more than a thousand residents a year.

There is no one reason for Marysville’s recent increases, city spokeswoman Bronlea Mishler said. The county’s second-largest city lies conveniently alongside I-5 for the many residents who commute south for work in Everett, Seattle or the Eastside suburbs. But they don’t need to leave town for amenities.

“We’ve had strong single-family, multi-family housing growth in the area, and we’ve added many commercial services,” Mishler said. “There are a lot of young families moving here for the affordability and the parks, for the good access to commercial services,” Mishler said.

Marysville in 2014 was the state’s 17th-biggest city, behind Pasco in Franklin County and ahead of Lakewood in Pierce County.

Other highlights of the 2014 census numbers:

Everett was still the county’s biggest city, and the state’s seventh-biggest, with an estimated 106,736 residents. That’s an increase of 1,316, or 1.2 percent, over 2013. Since 2010, Everett has added about 3,717 people for an increase of 3.6 percent.

Seattle (668,342) was, of course, the biggest city in Washington, ranked 80th nationwide in growth for a 2.3 percent increase since the year before. Seattle was the nation’s 20th-biggest city in 2014, behind El Paso and ahead of Denver.

Rounding out the top 10 cities in the state were Spokane (212,052), Tacoma (205,159), Vancouver (169,294), Bellevue (136,426), Kent (125,560), Everett (106,736), Renton (98,404), Federal Way (93,425) and Yakima (93,357).

Snohomish County (759,583) is still the state’s third-biggest, behind King (2,079,967) and Pierce (831,928). Snohomish County is followed by Spokane (484,318), Clark (451,008), Thurston (265,851), Kitsap (254,183), Yakima (247,687), Whatcom (208,351) and Benton (186,486) counties. Skagit County (120,365) was 11th and Island County (75,128) was 15th.

The fastest-growing portion of Snohomish County since the 2010 census: unincorporated areas. The estimated 328,437 people not living within a municipality in 2014 represent an 8.6 percent increase since 2010.

Chuck Taylor: ctaylor@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3429; Twitter: @chcktylr.