The Seattle area grew even more affluent in 2022, but new census data shows some neighborhoods are far wealthier than others.
Seattle hit a record median household income of $115,000, according to census data released in September — that’s about 54% higher than the median income for all U.S. households, which was $74,750. Some cities on the Eastside were even wealthier. The median income for households in Sammamish, for example, was an eye-popping $224,000.
This month, the U.S. Census Bureau released data for census tracts, which lets us look at income figures at the neighborhood level.
So what are King County’s most affluent neighborhoods?
We’ll have to call it a nine-way tie. That’s because the Census Bureau has an upper limit of $250,000 for its data on median income, and in nine of King County’s nearly 500 census tracts, the median exceeded that figure.
Only one of these ultrawealthy tracts was in Seattle, located in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. The other eight were all on the Eastside, as you might expect. They were located in Yarrow Point/Clyde Hill, parts of Bellevue (Newport/West Bellevue, Hilltop), the eastern part of Sammamish, North Redmond/English Hill and most of Mercer Island.
If you’re wondering about Medina, it fell slightly short of the quarter-million-dollar threshold, with a median household income of $245,000.
An additional 29 census tracts had a median household income between $200,000 and $250,000. The bulk of these were on the Eastside or in eastern King County, but a handful were in Seattle. These include tracts in Montlake/North Capitol Hill, North Beach/Blue Ridge, the northern part of Green Lake, and the western side of Magnolia.
The median is the midway point — in other words, half the households made more and half made less.
Of course, not all areas of King County are so wealthy. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there were 14 census tracts where the median household income was less than $50,000.
Twelve of these were in Seattle. Most of them were in the University District, where there are high concentrations of students who may have little or no income. The lowest median household income in the county was in a tract on the west side of the UW campus, at around $19,400. The median age in this tract was around 19 and 100% of the households were rented.
Note that students who live in dorms wouldn’t be included in this data because the Census Bureau produces income data for households, and dorms are considered “group quarters” rather than households. Only students who live in off-campus housing would be included.
Not all of Seattle’s low-income tracts were in the University District. There were five others, and the one with the lowest median income was in the Chinatown International District/Yesler Terrace area, at around $36,900. In an adjacent tract located in the central part of Pioneer Square, the median was slightly higher, at $40,100.
The other three Seattle tracts not in the University District where the median household income was less than $50,000 were in South Seattle’s NewHolly housing development, the northern edge of the Bitter Lake neighborhood and part of the Northgate neighborhood.
The two King County census tracts outside of Seattle where the median was less than $50,000 were in the northern tip of Federal Way and north Auburn.
It’s worth taking a moment to define what the Census Bureau considers household income.
Household income includes contributions by all members of the household, whether related or not, age 15 and older. Of course, wages are a major part of household income, but it also includes interest, dividends, income from rental properties, royalties, public assistance and disability and retirement incomes (Social Security, pensions, etc.).
Because household income includes the contributions of everyone in the household, a larger household with two or more working adults can easily have a higher household income than an individual who lives alone, even if that individual has a high salary.
It also means that areas with a high percentage of people who live alone, like in much of Central Seattle, could have lower median household incomes simply because a greater share of households only have one earner.
Another point to consider: These income figures are calculated by taking an average of five years’ worth of data — in other words, the new release is actually an average of the data from 2018 to 2022. The Census Bureau uses five-year averages to increase the sample size, which improves the accuracy of data for relatively small areas like census tracts.
But it also means that the figures are a little out of date, even though they were just released. Most likely, incomes in much of Seattle right now are even higher than these numbers show.
Correction: A previous version of this column misstated where the tract with the lowest median household income was in relation to the UW campus, and where one tract with a median income under $50,000 was.
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