Every fall, the U.S. Census Bureau releases income data for cities, and for the past decade, I got used to reporting eye-popping increases for Seattle households. After reviewing the new 2025 data, released last week, I can report that streak is over.
Seattle’s median household income was about $122,800 in 2025, according to the bureau's latest American Community Survey. And while that's a big number, it's only incrementally higher than it was in 2022, at about $115,400.
That’s an increase of $7,400, or 6.4%, in the three-year period. But consumer prices rose about 10% over the same stretch. In other words, the typical Seattle household’s income hasn’t kept up with inflation.
The contrast with the decade before is stark. In 2012, Seattle’s median household income was about $64,500. By 2022, it had risen 79%, reaching $115,400. Even after adjusting for inflation, that's about a 40% gain.
Nationally, the story has been different over the last few years. The U.S. median household income was $84,800 in 2025, up 13.4% from $74,800 in 2022. That’s double Seattle’s rate, and enough to outpace inflation.
Among the 50 largest cities, Seattle tied with Denver for the sixth-smallest increase from 2022 to 2025. Several of the slowest-growing cities were tech hubs or West Coast neighbors: San Francisco had the smallest increase, at 3.5%, followed by Portland and Austin, Texas. Las Vegas had the largest, at 22.3%.
None of this means Seattle has stopped being a high-income city. Among the 50 largest U.S. cities, Seattle still ranks third, behind only San Jose, Calif., at $147,800 and San Francisco at $141,500. San Diego is fourth at $113,900, followed by Washington, D.C., at $109,500 and Boston at $101,800. Even so, Seattle’s lead is shrinking, as other big cities post bigger gains and inflation erodes what Seattle households earn.
The median among the 50 largest cities is about $84,000. Portland lands in the middle of the pack, at $84,900, ranking 23rd. Detroit is last at $40,900, a third of Seattle’s figure.
Closer to home, four Eastside cities have higher medians than Seattle.
Sammamish tops the state. Its median is so high the census doesn’t report an exact figure, only that it exceeds $250,000, the survey’s ceiling for this measure. Redmond is next at $177,100, followed by Kirkland at $162,700 and Bellevue at $148,500.
That puts Seattle fifth among the 22 Washington communities large enough to show up in the annual survey. Right behind is South Hill, an unincorporated area near Puyallup, at $121,900, essentially tied with Seattle. Shoreline, Kent and Renton all top $100,000.
Tacoma’s median is $90,400. On the east side of the state, Spokane comes in at $73,900. Yakima has the lowest median among the largest cities in the state, at $62,700.
One possible factor in Seattle's stagnant median income is the job market, especially in tech, which powered much of the city's income growth in previous years. Seattle lost about 18,600 jobs from 2024 to 2025, according to a recent report from the Downtown Seattle Association, a business advocacy group. Bellevue and Tacoma added jobs over the same stretch.
That count reflects where people work, not where they live, so not every lost job belonged to a Seattle resident. But the region’s biggest employers have been cutting. Amazon cut more than 4,500 Washington jobs in two big rounds, in October 2025 and February 2026, according to state layoff filings. Redmond-based Microsoft laid off about 3,200 Washington workers in 2025 and this week offered buyouts to roughly a quarter of its global workforce.
The Seattle area’s unemployment rate, long below the state’s, has matched or exceeded the state's every month for the past year. In September, the rate for both the state and the Seattle metro was 4.8%, higher than the U.S. rate of 4.1%.
Seattle’s high incomes have long helped offset its high costs. For three years now, that cushion hasn’t grown.
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