Politics & Government

Census 2010: Mercer Island Sees More Housing and Diversity, But Little Growth

Housing units increased 12.7 percent and Asians now comprise 16 percent of the population, while whites make up about 78 percent.

Big increases in Mercer Island's housing units didn't translate to much of a population rise on Mercer Island, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Wednesday.

According to the new figures, the city's population increased just 663 residents since 2000 to 22,699 in 2010, or a three percent increase. Meanwhile, Mercer Island saw a 12 percent jump in local housing stock, mostly due to considerable redevelopment in the Town Center area. According to the Census figures, another 1,124 housing units were built on Mercer Island over the past decade, rising to a total of 9,930 in 2010. Census workers also discovered that the housing vacancy rate on the Island doubled from 4.19 percent in 2000 to 8.3 percent last year, for a total of 821 vacant housing units. 

"I don't know exactly what that means," said Mercer Island Mayor Jim Pearman, who grew up locally and now lives on the South-End.

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"But we've had a lot of big growth where we want it, which is on the North-End. It's where Sound Transit will come in (with a transit stop on the EastLink Light Rail project). This place has always been a solid investment and a wonderful place to live." 

The count was conducted as a snapshot of where people lived on Census Day last year on April 1, 2010. 

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Identified by race, Asians saw the largest increase in population, rising from 11.9 percent in 2000 (2,615) to 15.9 in 2010 (3,615). The largest group by race on Mercer Island, White, declined from 84.1 percent in 2000 (18,530) to 77.9 in 2010 (17,677). 

"None of that surprises me," said Pearman. "I think the Asian population has been hovering around 10-15 percent for many many years, and it's reflected in the schools and my kid's friends … When I was younger on the island, we had a lot of ethnically Japanese families, but in the last decade or so we've had a few more Chinese families."

Two other fast-growing groups on Mercer Island are residents listing two or more races—3.5 percent in 2010, up from 1.9 percent in 2000—and Hispanics or Latinos, rising to 2.8 from 1.9 percent.

Compared with other cities in the state, Mercer Island's stable population size moved it down the list of most populous cities, down from 39th largest in 2000 to 42nd in 2010, behind cities like Bainbridge Island, Issaquah and Oak Harbor.

The six most-populous Washington cities remained unchanged. They are, respectively: Seattle (608,660), Spokane (208,916), Tacoma (198,397), Vancouver (161,791), Bellevue (122,363) and Everett (103,019). At the county level, King County is still home to the most people: 1,931,249 in 2010, up from 1,737,034 in 2000. That change represents an 11.2 percent increase in population.

Washington state’s population rose about 14 percent in the past decade, reaching 6,724,540 in 2010. The state is slightly more diverse and mirrors Mercer Island in the same proportions, with 77 percent of the population identifying themselves as white, vs. 82 percent in 2000.

The Hispanic and Latino population grew the fastest, rising 71 percent to about three-quarters of a million people. That group—considered a subset of "race" in the 2010 Census—makes up about 11 percent of the state’s population, up from 7.5 percent in 2000.

Among people who identified themselves as one race, the population of native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders grew the fastest, up 69 percent. Asians grew 49 percent; blacks grew 26 percent; American Indian and Alaska natives grew 11 percent; and the white population rose just under 8 percent. People who identified themselves as “Some Other Race” rose 53 percent.

People who identified themselves as two or more races rose 47 percent. They’re still just a small portion of the population, at about 313,000, or just under 5 percent.


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