25% of observed Kent resident jobs lead to Seattle; only 16% stay local.
25% of observed resident job destinations are in Seattle, followed by Renton at 9%. Only 16% are inside Kent.
Current GTFS schedules 21,016 weekday stop departures at 384 stops inside Kent; that supply still needs to be tested against the route to Seattle, the largest outside job destination. Schedule supply is not ridership.
Kent contains 78,707 workplace jobs. Logistics / Industrial accounts for 22% of them. Manufacturing is next at 20%.
Freight routes, warehouse land, and shift access are central economic infrastructure in Kent—not secondary land-use details.
Kent’s population rose 2% from 2021–2026; its workplace job count rose 5% from 2018–2023. The source periods differ because the two series are released on different schedules.
Growth on both sides of Kent’s workday can support a fuller local economy, provided new homes and transportation keep workers within reach of the 78,707 jobs already located there.
55% of measured renter households are cost-burdened, compared with 28% of measured owners. 43% of occupied homes are rentals.
Kent renters react to current prices, while many established owners carry older purchase prices and mortgages. Its 27-point burden gap is lost in a single affordability average.
The typical household estimate is 2.8 people. 68% are estimated to be family households, while 25% are estimated to be people living alone.
±0.1 people at 90% confidence
±0.7 years at 90% confidence
±2 points at 90% confidence
Among residents age 25 and older. ±2 points at 90% confidence
Estimated share of all Kent residents. Each percentage uses the city’s total population as its denominator.
0% published estimate: Mongolian, Okinawan, Other East Asian, Singaporean, Other Southeast Asian, Sri Lankan, Other South Asian, Uzbek, Other Central Asian, Other Asian, specified. Zero is not proof that no residents identify with that group.
Logistics / Industrial accounts for 22% of jobs located in Kent. The city’s job base changed +39% between 2010 and 2023.
Workplace jobs inside the city—not the industries of residents who commute elsewhere.
Jobs located in Kent · Historical employer snapshot · 2023. The source is older than the current employer publication window; headcounts are historical, not current.
City of Kent business-license system and public-school records ↗. Headcounts change faster than Census employment totals.
57% of occupied homes are estimated to be owner-occupied and 43% rented. The estimates suggest 55% of renter households and 28% of owner households spend at least 30% of income on housing.
Owner estimates from the 2020–2024 American Community Survey—not listings, recorded sales, or appraisals. The final Census band is open-ended: $2 million and above.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-year tables B25075–B25078. Values cover owner-occupied homes only and do not measure current asking prices or recent purchase prices.
This describes the existing stock. It does not imply that one building type is preferable.
±3 points at 90% confidence
Spending 30% or more of income on gross rent. ±6 points at 90% confidence
Spending 30% or more on selected owner costs. ±3 points at 90% confidence
Permit authorizations—not construction starts or completed homes.
Permit activity: U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, final annual estimate for 2025. Housing units authorized are not starts or completions.
Current transit schedules include 384 stops and 21,016 weekday stop departures inside Kent. The 2020–2024 ACS separately estimates how workers usually commuted; it does not count every transit trip or describe today's schedule.
Scheduled stop departures in the current covered-feed snapshot—not riders.
Matched inside city limits; nearby cross-border stops are separate.
25% of observed resident job destinations in 2023 LODES.
Share of observed resident job destinations located in the same city in 2023 LODES.
Top observed workplace destinations. 16% work inside Kent.
The strongest outside connection is Seattle. Employer or corridor changes there can alter everyday life in Kent, even when nothing changes inside the city boundary.
Citywide ACS 2020–2024 estimates describe workers’ usual commute—not every trip made today.
Share of workers usually driving alone. ±2 points at 90% confidence
Share of workers usually working from home. ±1 points at 90% confidence
Usual commute mode—not all transit trips. ±0.9 points at 90% confidence
Share of workers with a one-way commute of at least 45 minutes. ±2 points at 90% confidence
For someone choosing a home in Kent, the practical test is the trip to Seattle, the leading outside workplace destination in the published flows. These citywide shares cannot show whether that trip works from a particular address.
Work destinations are selected from observed resident job flows. These are broad, reviewed planning ranges from representative parts of Kent—not live-traffic or door-to-door predictions.
Seattle is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Kent, representing 22% of matched resident jobs from this city.
Highway-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.25x circuity factor and an assumed 45 km/h peak-effective / 70 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.
Kent is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Kent, representing 15% of matched resident jobs from this city.
Local arterial-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.40x circuity factor and an assumed 28 km/h peak-effective / 42 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.
Renton is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Kent, representing 8% of matched resident jobs from this city.
Local arterial-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.40x circuity factor and an assumed 28 km/h peak-effective / 42 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.
Bellevue is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Kent, representing 5% of matched resident jobs from this city.
Highway-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.25x circuity factor and an assumed 45 km/h peak-effective / 70 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.
Planning estimate; actual time varies by departure time, route, traffic, weather, incidents, and closures.
Estimates are derived from reviewed origin/destination coordinates using a documented distance-to-time heuristic (circuity factor and assumed effective speed by corridor type and period), then deliberately widened and rounded to a broad band. No live routing or traffic API was called.
Estimates reviewed 2026-09-10. Starting point: selected representative area.
Public schools, libraries, pharmacies, and listed everyday places show part of the local inventory inside Kent; taxable sales show the scale and direction of local commercial activity. Residents also use places across city lines, so a boundary count is not the same as access.
Care, errands, food, fitness, and personal services gathered into one browsable directory.
Counts reflect current directory records associated with the city, not a complete business census or a measure of access. Large categories show a sample.
Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), snapshot 2026-08-13; Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-08-19.0; U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (NPPES NPI Registry), snapshot 2026-09-09.
Floor area shows the scale of the physical branches. Physical circulation is 2024 checkouts—not visits, unique users, or digital borrowing—and people routinely use libraries across city lines.
All matched branches must report floor area before a city total is shown.
Annual branch activity; not limited to city residents. All matched branches must report before a city total is shown.
Source: Washington State Library public-library statistics, 2024. System-wide visits, digital circulation, and program attendance cannot be assigned honestly to one branch, so they are not folded into these city totals.
Institution counts and enrollment will remain separate. A school can serve students from outside the city, and residents may attend a school across the boundary or elsewhere in their district.
Public-school names and levels come from OSPI. Private schools, complete IPEDS college coverage, enrollment by level, and graduate destinations are active additions; absence here should not yet be read as “none.”
The sales total does not point strongly toward either a major regional shopping role or an unusually small local retail base.
Higher than 43% of 82 tracked cities.
Nominal retail-sales change; inflation can account for some or all of an increase.
Sales reported by businesses classified in retail trade.
Includes taxable activity outside retail trade.
Retailing industries’ share of all taxable sales.
Median retail sales per resident across cities with comparable data.
Kent voters elect the mayor separately from the council. The mayor leads city administration, while the council adopts laws, policy, and the budget—so executive accountability sits directly with an elected office.
The mayor is separately elected to lead administration.
The separately elected chief executive.
Current directory entries; vacancies or updates can make this differ from authorized seats.
Code city under Washington law.
Regular meeting schedule listed in the current municipal directory:
Schedules change and special meetings are separate. Check the city site for the live agenda, staff reports, public-comment rules, and video.
Regular municipal offices generally return in 2027. Special measures can appear earlier, and charter provisions can differ.
The next data step is city-specific turnout, contested-seat share, ballot measures, and campaign money. Until those are normalized, Metroscope links the official record instead of guessing from partisan elections.
Structure, meetings, and current officials: Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington (MRSC), checked 2026-09-08. Election administration and certified results: the county election offices listed above. Confirm live agendas and officeholders at the source.
Population and jobs do not always move together. Reading both helps distinguish a growing employment center from a city whose households are increasingly tied to opportunities elsewhere.
2% more from 2021 to 2026
5% more from 2018 to 2023
Nominal taxable-sales change; not adjusted for inflation.