Stanwood is growing faster as a home base than as a workplace.
Stanwood’s population rose 17% from 2021–2026; its workplace job count rose 1% from 2018–2023. The source periods differ because the two series are released on different schedules.
The practical consequence is regional: more households will depend on the trip to Everett or another job center unless local work catches up.
Stanwood contains 3,349 workplace jobs. Education accounts for 23% of them. Healthcare is next at 22%.
Enrollment, public budgets, and campus growth are part of Stanwood’s economic outlook—not just its education story.
21% of observed resident job destinations are in Everett, followed by Seattle at 15%. Only 16% are inside Stanwood.
Current GTFS schedules 633 weekday stop departures at 29 stops inside Stanwood; that supply still needs to be tested against the route to Everett, the largest outside job destination. Schedule supply is not ridership.
9,325 residents are counted in the latest official state estimate, 17% more than in 2021. Survey measures appear here only when their uncertainty is small enough to describe the city confidently.
±0.3 people at 90% confidence
±3.6 years at 90% confidence
Among residents age 25 and older. ±7 points at 90% confidence
Income alone does not describe wealth or local costs. ±3 points at 90% confidence
Estimated share of all Stanwood residents. Each percentage uses the city’s total population as its denominator.
0% published estimate: Chinese, except Taiwanese, Hmong, Japanese, Mongolian, Okinawan, Taiwanese, Other East Asian, Burmese, Cambodian, 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.
Education (includes academia/research) accounts for 23% of jobs located in Stanwood. The city’s job base changed +9% between 2010 and 2023.
Workplace jobs inside the city—not the industries of residents who commute elsewhere.
Major employers located in Stanwood; historical city economic profile · Historical employer snapshot · 2017. The source is older than the current employer publication window; headcounts are historical, not current.
City of Stanwood economic and demographic information ↗. Headcounts change faster than Census employment totals.
The firmer current signal is construction intent: 242 homes were authorized in 2025, versus a recent pace of about 152 per year.
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.
Permit authorizations—not construction starts or completed homes.
One building can contain one home or many housing units.
Average housing units authorized per year across the latest three final annual estimates.
2023–2025 average compared with 2020–2022.
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 29 stops and 633 weekday stop departures inside Stanwood. 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.
21% 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 Stanwood.
The strongest outside connection is Everett. Employer or corridor changes there can alter everyday life in Stanwood, 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 working from home. ±7 points at 90% confidence
Usual commute mode—not all transit trips. ±1 points at 90% confidence
For someone choosing a home in Stanwood, the practical test is the trip to Everett, 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 Stanwood—not live-traffic or door-to-door predictions.
Everett is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Stanwood, representing 14% 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.
Stanwood is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Stanwood, representing 11% 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.
Seattle is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Stanwood, representing 10% 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.
Arlington is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Stanwood, 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 Stanwood; 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.”
Retail sales per resident rank among the 64% highest of the cities tracked by Metroscope. The city appears to play more than a purely neighborhood retail role, but the sales records cannot identify who made the purchases.
Higher than 64% 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.
Stanwood 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.
17% more from 2021 to 2026
1% more from 2018 to 2023
Nominal taxable-sales change; not adjusted for inflation.