With the high cost of living in Seattle, how can people afford to have kids here? The answer is simple: By making a lot of money. The median income for a Seattle married couple with kids is so high, the U.S. Census Bureau no longer bothers producing an exact figure.
That happens when the median household income for any population passes the $250,000 mark. And data released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau shows the median income for a Seattle married couple with children under 18 did just that in 2024.
The median for such couples in Seattle was already very high in 2023, when it was estimated at $244,800.
The median is the midway point, meaning half the married couples make less and half the married couples make more. But we can no longer tell from the data what the median is — we can only tell that it's more than $250,000.
There were 45,700 married-with-kids households in Seattle in 2024.
Among the 50 largest U.S. cities, Seattle is one of just three where the median income for a married couple with kids is this high. The other two are Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
Detroit had the lowest median income for married couples with kids, at around $72,800, followed by Cleveland at $91,400 and Milwaukee at $93,900.
The U.S. median for such households was $133,000.
In most married-with-kids households, there are two working parents, which is one reason the median income tends to be so high. Because household income includes the contributions of everyone 15 and older 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 person has a high salary.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2024, in 66.5% of married-with-kids households nationally, both parents are employed. The labor-force participation rates, though, were lower for married mothers than for married fathers. Married mothers were also less likely to work than mothers who were unmarried.
Another reason for high incomes among married-with-kids households is that in the U.S., affluent people are the most likely to get married these days. According to a report by the Brookings Institution, in the 1980s, marriage rates were around the same for high- and middle-income people. But since then, there has been a steady decline in the marriage rate among middle earners. The rate has also dropped among lower-income people, who were always less likely to marry than high and middle-income people. But the marriage rate among high earners has remained stable.
Researchers point to a variety of economic, cultural and demographic factors behind this trend. For example, marriage was once seen as an expected step to adulthood, and a prerequisite for having children. Those social pressures have lessened significantly. Sociologists point to a change in the perception of marriage, now more likely to be seen as a capstone achievement — many Americans feel marriage can be considered only after reaching professional success and financial stability.
Children raised by single parents are often in much lower-income households, and the median for a single mother in Seattle was $59,400. I chose not to include the median for single fathers because there were relatively few such households in Seattle — around 3,600. Sampling such a small population resulted in a very large margin of error for the median income estimate.
In Census Bureau terminology, household income includes contributions by all members of the household, whether related or not, age 15 and older. Wages and tips 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.).
The median income for all 383,700 households in Seattle last year was estimated at $118,700. Typically, the median income in Seattle goes up in each year’s census data release. This time, though, it’s effectively unchanged from 2023, when the median income for city households was estimated at a slightly higher $120,600.
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