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An editorial illustration of Lynnwood, Washington
Snohomish County · Washington

Lynnwood, WA

Edmonds College puts a campus population into Lynnwood’s workday.

Population
43,070
11% more from 2021 to 2026
Family households
59.2%
±4 points at 90% confidence
Local jobs
29,788
2% fewer from 2018 to 2023
Median income
$77,704
±$2,831 at 90% confidence
City overview

The forces shaping Lynnwood now.

01
A campus city

Edmonds College puts a campus population into Lynnwood’s workday.

59% of households are estimated to be families. Edmonds College adds a postsecondary population that is not visible in the public-school count.

Lynnwood’s campus change demand by hour and season: transit, rentals, and inexpensive food matter in ways an office count misses. Enrollment at Edmonds College will show the scale.

Households: ACS 2024 · public-school locations: OSPI 2025–26
02
The trajectory

More residents and fewer local jobs are pulling Lynnwood in opposite directions.

Lynnwood’s population rose 11% from 2021–2026; its workplace job count fell 2% from 2018–2023. The source periods differ because the two series are released on different schedules.

Seattle already receives 35% of observed resident job destinations. If the split continues, that outside connection—and the trip it requires—will carry more of the household economy.

Population: 2021–2026 · jobs: 2018–2023
03
Who needs mobility to work

11% of Lynnwood households have no vehicle; service gaps land on them first.

11% of households have no vehicle. Current GTFS schedules 9,592 weekday stop departures at 189 stops inside the city, while Seattle is the largest outside job destination.

For Lynnwood’s no-vehicle households, route frequency matters only if it reaches work, groceries, school, and care at the needed hour—including the connection to Seattle. They feel missing links first.

Commute modes: ACS 2024 · job destinations: 2023
04
The local economic engine

Roughly one in 4 Lynnwood jobs belongs to retail.

Lynnwood contains 29,788 workplace jobs. Retail accounts for 26% of them. Education is next at 13%.

Consumer traffic and the health of Lynnwood’s shopping districts matter to both jobs and local tax receipts, making household spending a citywide concern.

Workplace jobs: 2023
People

Who lives here—and which households shape demand?

The typical household estimate is 2.5 people. 59% are estimated to be family households, while 32% are estimated to be people living alone.

Average household size
2.5

±0.1 people at 90% confidence

Median age
37.5

±1.8 years at 90% confidence

Living alone
32%

±4 points at 90% confidence

Bachelor’s degree+
35%

Among residents age 25 and older. ±3 points at 90% confidence

Population composition

Who lives here

Estimated share of all Lynnwood residents. Each percentage uses the city’s total population as its denominator.

White, non-Hispanic49% ±3 pts
Hispanic / Latino, any race16% ±3 pts
Black, non-Hispanic10% ±2 pts
Two or more races, non-Hispanic5.8% ±1 pts
Chinese, except Taiwanese3.3% ±1 pts
Vietnamese2.4% ±0.9 pts
Filipino2.2% ±0.9 pts
Korean2.0% ±0.9 pts
Pakistani1.6% ±1 pts
Asian Indian1.3% ±0.6 pts
Japanese1.0% ±0.5 pts
Taiwanese1.0% ±0.9 pts
Thai0.9% ±0.9 pts
Two or more Asian groups0.9% ±0.6 pts
Cambodian0.8% ±0.6 pts
Afghan0.8% ±1 pts
Indonesian0.3% ±0.4 pts
Sri Lankan0.2% ±0.4 pts
Another race, non-Hispanic0.2% ±0.2 pts
Other Asian, not specified0.2% ±0.2 pts
Mongolian0.2% ±0.2 pts
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic0.1% ±0.1 pts
Laotian<0.1% ±0.1 pts
American Indian / Alaska Native, non-Hispanic<0.1% ±<0.1 pt

0% published estimate: Hmong, Okinawan, Other East Asian, Burmese, Malaysian, Mien, Singaporean, Other Southeast Asian, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Nepalese, Sikh, Other South Asian, Kazakh, Uzbek, Other Central Asian, Other Asian, specified. Zero is not proof that no residents identify with that group.

ACS 2020–2024 · 5-year estimates
Dataset
U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates · tables B03002 and B02015
Period
2020–2024
Geography
Lynnwood Census place
Definition
Race and Hispanic/Latino origin are self-reported Census concepts. Hispanic/Latino may be of any race; the broad display uses non-Hispanic race categories plus Hispanic/Latino of any race.
Method
Every percentage is shown with its 90% margin of error. Detailed Asian estimates use the Asian-alone universe and are divided by the city population for display.
Open the official source ↗
Work

What powers the local economy—and how dependent is it?

Retail accounts for 26% of jobs located in Lynnwood. The city’s job base changed +18% between 2010 and 2023.

Jobs by sector

Workplace jobs inside the city—not the industries of residents who commute elsewhere.

Retail26%
Education (includes academia/research)13%
Hospitality12%
Healthcare & Social Assistance10%
Professional Services (partial technology proxy)10%

Historical employer snapshot

Full-time-equivalent jobs attributed to employers in Lynnwood · Historical employer snapshot · 2022. The source is older than the current employer publication window; headcounts are historical, not current.

Edmonds School District1,893 · 2022
Edmonds College1,520 · 2022
Nordstrom401 · 2022
City of Lynnwood330 · 2022
Costco322 · 2022
Macy’s West314 · 2022
Zumiez headquarters301 · 2022
Costco Business Center245 · 2022
Fred Meyer189 · 2022
Expeditors International185 · 2022

City of Lynnwood Annual Comprehensive Financial Report ↗. Headcounts change faster than Census employment totals.

Housing

What kinds of homes exist—and where is pressure showing?

51% of occupied homes are estimated to be owner-occupied and 49% rented. The firmer current signal is construction intent: 79 homes were authorized in 2025, versus a recent pace of about 278 per year.

Home value profile

What owner-occupied homes are worth

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.

Median estimate$687k±33742.0 at 90% confidence
Middle half of homes$498k–$882kLower to upper quartile of owner estimates
Luxury-home concentration0%≈19 homes · estimated at $2M+
Under $500k25%
$500–749k33%
$750–999k31%
$1–1.49M10%
$1.5–1.99M0%
$2M+0%

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.

The housing mix we can estimate confidently

This describes the existing stock. It does not imply that one building type is preferable.

Detached houses45%
Attached houses3%
2–4 unit buildings10%
5+ unit buildings38%
Other3%
Owner-occupied
51%

±4 points at 90% confidence

Owner cost-burdened
30%

Spending 30% or more on selected owner costs. ±6 points at 90% confidence

Homes authorized, 2025
79

Permit authorizations—not construction starts or completed homes.

Residential buildings, 2025
20

One building can contain one home or many housing units.

Permit activity: U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, final annual estimate for 2025. Housing units authorized are not starts or completions.

Mobility

Where do residents need to go—and who has a real alternative to driving?

Current transit schedules include 189 stops and 9,592 weekday stop departures inside Lynnwood. The 2020–2024 ACS separately estimates how workers usually commuted; it does not count every transit trip or describe today's schedule.

Weekday departures
9,592

Scheduled stop departures in the current covered-feed snapshot—not riders.

Transit stops
189

Matched inside city limits; nearby cross-border stops are separate.

Top outside workplace
Seattle

35% of observed resident job destinations in 2023 LODES.

Work inside the city
11%

Share of observed resident job destinations located in the same city in 2023 LODES.

Where resident workers go

Top observed workplace destinations. 11% work inside Lynnwood.

Seattle35%
Peak drive: 30–60 min
Everett11%
Peak drive: 25–50 min
Bellevue8%
Peak drive: 30–60 min
Redmond4%

The strongest outside connection is Seattle. Employer or corridor changes there can alter everyday life in Lynnwood, even when nothing changes inside the city boundary.

How residents usually get to work

Citywide ACS 2020–2024 estimates describe workers’ usual commute—not every trip made today.

Drive alone
64%

Share of workers usually driving alone. ±5 points at 90% confidence

Work from home
15%

Share of workers usually working from home. ±3 points at 90% confidence

Use public transit
8.7%

Usual commute mode—not all transit trips. ±2 points at 90% confidence

Commute 45+ minutes
20%

Share of workers with a one-way commute of at least 45 minutes. ±3 points at 90% confidence

For someone choosing a home in Lynnwood, 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.

Typical drive times

About how long does it take to get where people go?

Work destinations are selected from observed resident job flows. These are broad, reviewed planning ranges from representative parts of Lynnwood—not live-traffic or door-to-door predictions.

Starting area
Downtown Seattle employment core

Seattle is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Lynnwood, representing 30% of matched resident jobs from this city.

30–60 minWeekday morning peak
Details

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.

Lynnwood employment area

Lynnwood is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Lynnwood, representing 9% of matched resident jobs from this city.

5–20 minWeekday morning peak
Details

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.

Everett employment area

Everett is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Lynnwood, representing 9% of matched resident jobs from this city.

25–50 minWeekday morning peak
Details

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.

Downtown Bellevue employment core

Bellevue is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Lynnwood, representing 7% of matched resident jobs from this city.

30–60 minWeekday morning peak
Details

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.

Method, review date, and sources

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.

City boundary and regional context● nearby   ● work destinations
Daily life

Community institutions and local activity

Public schools, libraries, pharmacies, and listed everyday places show part of the local inventory inside Lynnwood; 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.

Local field guide

Places for everyday needs in Lynnwood

Care, errands, food, fitness, and personal services gathered into one browsable directory.

Hospitals0 in cityFind nearby
Clinics and urgent care23 listedView 8 places
Pharmacies26 listedView 8 places
Coffee24 listedView 8 places
Fitness31 listedView 8 places
Groceries39 listedView 8 places
Convenience8 listedView all
Restaurants236 listedView 8 places
Salons and barbers198 listedView 8 places

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.

Public library footprint

Lynnwood Library

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.

Branch floor area
25,920 sq ft

All matched branches must report floor area before a city total is shown.

Physical checkouts
734,293

Annual branch activity; not limited to city residents. All matched branches must report before a city total is shown.

Lynnwood LibrarySno-Isle Libraries
25,920 sq ft734,293 physical checkouts64 scheduled hours/week

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.

Education footprint

The schools inside Lynnwood.

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 elementary7
  • Beverly Elementary SchoolEdmonds School District
  • Cedar Valley Elementary School (Lynnwood)Edmonds School District
  • College Place Elementary SchoolEdmonds School District
  • Lynndale Elementary SchoolEdmonds School District
See all 7
  • Lynnwood Elementary SchoolEdmonds School District
  • Meadowdale Elementary SchoolEdmonds School District
  • Spruce Elementary SchoolEdmonds School District
Public middle2
  • College Place Middle SchoolEdmonds School District
  • Meadowdale Middle SchoolEdmonds School District
Public high2
  • Edmonds Career Access ProgramEdmonds School District
  • Meadowdale High SchoolEdmonds School District
Other public programs1
  • Edmonds eLearning AcademyEdmonds School District
College and university campuses
Edmonds CollegePublic four-year and community college

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.”

Retail role

Lynnwood has an unusually large retail economy for its population.

Retail sales per resident rank among the 98% highest of the cities tracked by Metroscope. That is consistent with a city serving shoppers from beyond its borders, although sales records do not reveal where customers live.

Retail sales per resident, 2024
$50,116

Higher than 98% of 82 tracked cities.

Change from 2023
−7%

Nominal retail-sales change; inflation can account for some or all of an increase.

See the underlying sales totals
Retail trade, 2024
$2.2B

Sales reported by businesses classified in retail trade.

All taxable sales
$3.5B

Includes taxable activity outside retail trade.

Retail share
62%

Retailing industries’ share of all taxable sales.

Tracked-city median
$10,670

Median retail sales per resident across cities with comparable data.

Civic life

In Lynnwood, voters directly choose who runs City Hall.

Lynnwood 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.

Government form
Mayor–Council

The mayor is separately elected to lead administration.

Mayor listed
George Hurst

The separately elected chief executive.

Council representatives listed
7

Current directory entries; vacancies or updates can make this differ from authorized seats.

Incorporated
1959

Code city under Washington law.

Where decisions happen

When does the Lynnwood council meet?

Regular meeting schedule listed in the current municipal directory:

2nd & 4th Mon - 6:00pm1st & 3rd Mon/3rd Wed – Work Session Meetings

Schedules change and special meetings are separate. Check the city site for the live agenda, staff reports, public-comment rules, and video.

Election record

Where to check Lynnwood election results.

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.

Change

What is changing the city’s trajectory?

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.

Residents
43,070

11% more from 2021 to 2026

Local jobs
29,788

2% fewer from 2018 to 2023

Retail trade, 2023–2024
−7%

Nominal taxable-sales change; not adjusted for inflation.

Data & details — selected comparable metrics across 82 places
Local jobs
LODES
29,788
1,506656,821
Higher than 69% of places
Long-run job change
LODES
+18%
−3%+166%
Higher than only 21% of places
Weekday transit departures
GTFS snapshot
9,592
19256,385
Higher than 75% of places
Multifamily permitting
Census BPS
Near its usual pace
Recent annual pace compared with this city's own 2010–2025 record
2BR Fair Market Rent
HUD, county-level
$2,549
FY2027 HUD program benchmark; chart shows FY2020–FY2027 history. Shared across this HUD metro area—not a place-specific market rent.
Work — sector breakdown
Share of local jobs by sector · LODES · workplace location, not resident industry
Retail26% (7,601)
Education (includes academia/research)13% (3,997)
Hospitality12% (3,608)
Healthcare & Social Assistance10% (3,042)
Professional Services (partial technology proxy)10% (3,026)
Construction / Real Estate7% (1,947)
Administrative & Support Services6% (1,690)
Finance4% (1,273)
Logistics / Industrial3% (978)
Other3% (962)
Government (Public Administration)2% (724)
Manufacturing (includes, but is not limited to, aerospace)2% (571)
Information (partial technology proxy)1% (369)
Where Lynnwood's workforce lives (inbound)
LODES OD — commuting flows into local jobs
Seattle
14.3%
Everett
11.2%
Lynnwood
10.3%
Edmonds
8.2%
Shoreline
4.9%