All places > King County > Skykomish
An editorial illustration of Skykomish, Washington
King County · Washington

Skykomish, WA

Of just 68 recorded jobs in Skykomish, 34% are in education.

Population
165
3% more from 2021 to 2026
Family households
—
±26 points at 90% confidence · too uncertain for ranking or interpretation
Local jobs
68
87% fewer from 2018 to 2023
Median income
—
±$19,061 at 90% confidence
City overview

The forces shaping Skykomish now.

01
The local economic engine

Of just 68 recorded jobs in Skykomish, 34% are in education.

Skykomish contains 68 workplace jobs. Education accounts for 34% of them. Logistics / Industrial is next at 25%.

Skykomish has only 68 recorded workplace jobs, so one school, store, or worksite can dominate the 34% education share. Treat it as a lead to investigate, not a durable specialization.

Workplace jobs: 2023
02
The commute that shapes the city

Skykomish sends its largest stream of resident workers to Seattle.

27% of observed resident job destinations are in Seattle, followed by Bellevue at 18%.

Current GTFS schedules 0 weekday stop departures at 0 stops inside Skykomish; that supply still needs to be tested against the route to Seattle, the largest outside job destination. Schedule supply is not ridership.

Workplace flows: 2023 · commute modes: ACS 2024
03
The trajectory

Skykomish’s population is rising, but its local job base is moving the other way.

Skykomish’s population rose 3% from 2021–2026; its workplace job count fell 87% from 2018–2023. The source periods differ because the two series are released on different schedules.

Skykomish is small enough that one development or employer can swing both rates. Treat this as a change to investigate, not yet a durable trend.

Population: 2021–2026 · jobs: 2018–2023
People

Who lives here—and which households shape demand?

165 residents are counted in the latest official state estimate, 3% more than in 2021. Survey measures appear here only when their uncertainty is small enough to describe the city confidently.

Average household size
1.6

±0.3 people at 90% confidence

Residents, 2026
165

Official annual city estimate from Washington OFM.

Population change, 2021–2026
+3%

Change in official annual city estimates; boundary changes can contribute.

Population composition

Who lives here

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

White, non-Hispanic80% ±45 pts
Two or more races, non-Hispanic12% ±14 pts
Black, non-Hispanic3.3% ±9 pts
Hispanic / Latino, any race3.3% ±8 pts
Chinese, except Taiwanese1.1% ±3 pts
American Indian / Alaska Native, non-Hispanic0.0% ±14 pts
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic0.0% ±14 pts
Another race, non-Hispanic0.0% ±14 pts

0% published estimate: Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Okinawan, Taiwanese, Other East Asian, Burmese, Cambodian, Filipino, Indonesian, Laotian, Malaysian, Mien, Singaporean, Thai, Vietnamese, Other Southeast Asian, Asian Indian, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Nepalese, Pakistani, Sikh, Sri Lankan, Other South Asian, Afghan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Other Central Asian, Other Asian, specified, Other Asian, not specified, Two or more Asian groups. Zero is not proof that no residents identify with that group.

Some ranges are wide, which is common for smaller populations. Treat small differences as uncertain rather than as a precise ordering.

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
Skykomish 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?

Education (includes academia/research) accounts for 34% of jobs located in Skykomish. The city’s job base changed −84% between 2010 and 2023.

Jobs by sector

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

Education (includes academia/research)34%
Logistics / Industrial25%
Government (Public Administration)16%
Retail15%
Hospitality9%

Historical employer snapshot

Official town economic-development strategy; no ranked employer table · Historical employer snapshot · 2018 economic work plan; 2024 comprehensive plan. The source is older than the current employer publication window; headcounts are historical, not current.

The town publishes an economic-development work plan and current comprehensive plan, but no verified ranked employer list or company headcounts.

Town of Skykomish Economic Development Strategic Work Plan ↗. Headcounts change faster than Census employment totals.

Housing

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

The firmer current signal is construction intent: 0 homes were authorized in 2025, versus a recent pace of about 0 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$408k±97954.0 at 90% confidence
Middle half of homes$319k–$570kLower to upper quartile of owner estimates
Luxury-home concentration6%≈2 homes · estimated at $2M+
Under $500k68%
$500–749k26%
$750–999k0%
$1–1.49M0%
$1.5–1.99M0%
$2M+6%

These estimates are useful as a distribution, but the survey intervals are too wide to rank Skykomish or identify one definitive value range.

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.

What builders are proposing now

0 housing units across 0 residential buildings were authorized in 2025. 0 were in buildings with five or more units.

Authorizations are not starts or completions, but they are a more current signal of intended construction than an uncertain housing-mix estimate.

Homes authorized, 2025
0

Permit authorizations—not construction starts or completed homes.

Residential buildings, 2025
0

One building can contain one home or many housing units.

2023–2025 annual pace
0 homes

Average housing units authorized per year across the latest three final annual estimates.

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?

The current covered GTFS feeds matched no scheduled stop inside Skykomish’s boundary. That does not rule out service just outside the city or service absent from the covered feeds. The 2020–2024 ACS separately estimates how workers usually commuted; it does not count every transit trip or describe today's schedule.

Weekday departures
0

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

Transit stops
0

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

Top outside workplace
Seattle

27% of observed resident job destinations in 2023 LODES.

Where resident workers go

Top observed workplace destinations.

Seattle27%
Peak drive: 95–170 min
Bellevue18%
Peak drive: 85–150 min
Snoqualmie12%
Peak drive: 50–100 min
North Bend9%
Peak drive: 50–90 min
Issaquah6%

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

How residents usually get to work

Skykomish has 0 scheduled weekday stop departures at 0 stops in the current covered feeds. The household survey is too uncertain to describe the citywide commute-mode split confidently.

The useful next answer is route-specific: travel time, frequency, transfers, and walking distance from a particular home to a likely workplace.

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 Skykomish—not live-traffic or door-to-door predictions.

Starting area
Downtown Seattle employment core

Seattle is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Skykomish, representing 22% of matched resident jobs from this city.

95–170 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.

Downtown Bellevue employment core

Bellevue is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Skykomish, representing 15% of matched resident jobs from this city.

85–150 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.

Snoqualmie employment area

Snoqualmie is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Skykomish, representing 10% of matched resident jobs from this city.

50–100 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.

North Bend employment area

North Bend is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Skykomish, representing 8% of matched resident jobs from this city.

50–90 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 Skykomish; 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 Skykomish

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.

Public library footprint

Skykomish 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
1,042 sq ft

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

Physical checkouts
6,322

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

Skykomish LibraryKing County Library System
1,042 sq ft6,322 physical checkouts21 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 Skykomish.

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 elementary0

None in the current OSPI city-boundary match.

Public middle0

None in the current OSPI city-boundary match.

Public high1
  • Skykomish High SchoolSkykomish School District
Other public programs1
  • Skykomish Elementary SchoolSkykomish School 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.”

Retail role

Skykomish sits near the regional middle for retail activity per resident.

The sales total does not point strongly toward either a major regional shopping role or an unusually small local retail base.

Retail sales per resident, 2024
$11,651

Higher than 57% of 82 tracked cities.

Change from 2023
−5%

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

See the underlying sales totals
Retail trade, 2024
$1.9M

Sales reported by businesses classified in retail trade.

All taxable sales
$10.4M

Includes taxable activity outside retail trade.

Retail share
18%

Retailing industries’ share of all taxable sales.

Tracked-city median
$10,670

Median retail sales per resident across cities with comparable data.

Civic life

Skykomish is governed as a town—not a city.

Skykomish 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
Henry Sladek

The separately elected chief executive.

Council representatives listed
5

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

Incorporated
1909

Town town under Washington law.

Where decisions happen

When does the Skykomish council meet?

Regular meeting schedule listed in the current municipal directory:

2nd Mon - 6:30pm

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 Skykomish 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
165

3% more from 2021 to 2026

Local jobs
68

87% fewer from 2018 to 2023

Retail trade, 2023–2024
−5%

Nominal taxable-sales change; not adjusted for inflation.

Data & details — selected comparable metrics across 82 places
Local jobs
LODES
68
1,506656,821
Higher than only 0% of places
Long-run job change
LODES
−84%
−3%+166%
Higher than only 0% of places
Weekday transit departures
GTFS snapshot
0
19256,385
Higher than only 0% of places
Multifamily permitting
Census BPS
Near a 15-year low
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
Education (includes academia/research)34% (23)
Logistics / Industrial25% (17)
Government (Public Administration)16% (11)
Retail15% (10)
Hospitality9% (6)
Information (partial technology proxy)1% (1)
Construction / Real Estate0% (0)
Other0% (0)
Manufacturing (includes, but is not limited to, aerospace)0% (0)
Finance0% (0)
Professional Services (partial technology proxy)0% (0)
Administrative & Support Services0% (0)
Healthcare & Social Assistance0% (0)
Where Skykomish's workforce lives (inbound)
LODES OD — commuting flows into local jobs
Stanwood
11.5%
Seattle
11.5%
Lake Stevens
11.5%
Sultan
7.7%
Marysville
7.7%