Communities

Communities thrive when residents are stable, food secure and not forced to move due to cost of living, development, or access issues. Environmental sustainability also plays a critical role in community health.

What are we seeing?

  • Overall housing cost burden stayed the same at 33%.

  • The food insecurity rate increased from 7.8% to 10.5%.

  • Median rental prices continued to rise, increasing 8% in 2022.

  • CO2 emissions saw a significant 19% decrease from 2019 to 2020, primarily due to reduced travel during COVID, but rose again from 2020 to 2021.

+0.5% change in cost-burdened households

(as of 2024)

Click on each section below to view data results for the REGION, updated 2024. (Optimized for desktop viewing). Data for King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish will be available soon.

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This trend means something is wrong.

Arrows show us weather a trend is ↑ increasing or ↓ decreasing.

Why is this metric important?

Housing costs in excess of 30% of income limit financial security, and can prevent upward mobility by restricting funds available for personal growth and continued education.

Source: ACS

Percent of total jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage (defined as two working adults with two children); i.e., share of total employment/jobs in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area that has a mean hourly wage equal to or greater than the living wage from the MIT index.

Why is this metric important?

Family sustaining wages promote economic security and mobility for households, and prevent individuals from needing to have multiple jobs.

Sources: BLS, BEA, MIT

*Due to changes in their methodology, MIT no longer makes living wage data prior to 2024 publicly available. To account for the new methodology used by MIT, this chart backcast a new living wage for 2017-2022 by applying the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Deflator from the Bureau of Economic Analysis to the 2023 MIT Living Wage. This deflator captures shifts in the cost of everyday goods and services over time that affect the required wage for supporting a family. Additionally, wage data by occupation for 2023 is expected to be published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in May of 2024. The current calculation of percent of jobs earning a living wage for 2023 uses 2022 wage data by occupation.
Percent of total jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage (defined as two working adults with two children); i.e., share of total employment/jobs in Bremerton-Silverdale area that has a mean hourly wage equal to or greater than the living wage from the MIT index.

Why is this metric important?

Sources: BLS, BEA, MIT

*Due to changes in their methodology, MIT no longer makes living wage data prior to 2024 publicly available. To account for the new methodology used by MIT, this chart backcast a new living wage for 2017-2022 by applying the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Deflator from the Bureau of Economic Analysis to the 2023 MIT Living Wage. This deflator captures shifts in the cost of everyday goods and services over time that affect the required wage for supporting a family. Additionally, wage data by occupation for 2023 is expected to be published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in May of 2024. The current calculation of percent of jobs earning a living wage for 2023 uses 2022 wage data by occupation.

Why is this metric important?

Experiencing hunger can be a barrier to educational success, participation in the economy, and can lead to poor health including malnutrition.

Source: Feeding America

Why is this metric important?

Indicates the general inflation rate for housing in the region, which has been shown to highly correlate to the incidence of people experiencing homelessness. This measure is influenced by both the supply of affordable housing as well as overall demand.

Source: ACS

Why is this metric important?

Indicates the general inflation rate for housing in the region, which has been shown to highly correlate to the incidence of people experiencing homelessness. This measure is influenced by both the supply of affordable housing as well as overall demand.

Source: ACS

Why is this metric important?

Indicates the general inflation rate for housing in the region, which has been shown to highly correlate to the incidence of people experiencing homelessness. This measure is influenced by both the supply of affordable housing as well as overall demand.

Source: ACS

Why is this metric important?

Indicates the general inflation rate for housing in the region, which has been shown to highly correlate to the incidence of people experiencing homelessness. This measure is influenced by both the supply of affordable housing as well as overall demand.

Source: ACS

Why is this metric important?

Carbon emissions are directly tied to changing climate and the downstream impacts on health, livability, and economic distress caused that most acutely impact vulnerable communities.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

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