All places > Pierce County > Wilkeson
An editorial illustration of Wilkeson, Washington
Pierce County · Washington

Wilkeson, WA

Of just 28 recorded jobs in Wilkeson, 29% are in hospitality.

Population
500
1% more from 2021 to 2026
Family households
—
±40 points at 90% confidence · too uncertain for ranking or interpretation
Local jobs
28
26% fewer from 2018 to 2023
Median income
—
±$38,321 at 90% confidence
City overview

The forces shaping Wilkeson now.

01
The local economic engine

Of just 28 recorded jobs in Wilkeson, 29% are in hospitality.

Wilkeson contains 28 workplace jobs. Hospitality accounts for 29% of them. Government is next at 29%.

Wilkeson has only 28 recorded workplace jobs, so one school, store, or worksite can dominate the 29% hospitality share. Treat it as a lead to investigate, not a durable specialization.

Workplace jobs: 2023
02
The commute that shapes the city

Wilkeson sends its largest stream of resident workers to Seattle.

19% of observed resident job destinations are in Seattle, followed by Tacoma at 9%.

Current GTFS schedules 0 weekday stop departures at 0 stops inside Wilkeson; 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 commercial pulse

Wilkeson’s taxable sales rose 12% to $6.1M.

Taxable sales totaled $6.1M, 12% higher than the previous year. Retail trade produced 32% of that total.

Wilkeson’s increase can support city revenue and storefront demand, but inflation or a one-time project may explain part of the $6.1M total. Another year will clarify it.

Washington taxable sales, 2024
People

Who lives here—and which households shape demand?

500 residents are counted in the latest official state estimate, 1% more than in 2021. Survey measures appear here only when their uncertainty is small enough to describe the city confidently.

Residents, 2026
500

Official annual city estimate from Washington OFM.

Population change, 2021–2026
+1%

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

Population composition

Who lives here

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

White, non-Hispanic78% ±42 pts
Two or more races, non-Hispanic16% ±20 pts
Hispanic / Latino, any race5.6% ±7 pts
American Indian / Alaska Native, non-Hispanic0.7% ±1 pts
Black, non-Hispanic0.2% ±0.5 pts
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic0.0% ±2 pts
Another race, non-Hispanic0.0% ±2 pts

0% published estimate: Chinese, except Taiwanese, 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
Wilkeson 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?

Hospitality accounts for 29% of jobs located in Wilkeson. The city’s job base changed +65% between 2010 and 2023.

Jobs by sector

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

Hospitality29%
Government (Public Administration)29%
Administrative & Support Services21%
Logistics / Industrial18%
Other4%

Historical employer snapshot

Official town employment target and workforce policy; no ranked employer table · Historical employer snapshot · 2020 baseline; 2044 target. The source is older than the current employer publication window; headcounts are historical, not current.

The plan documents a workforce-access strategy and a modest employment target, but not a verified ranking of individual employers.

Puget Sound Regional Council certification of the Wilkeson Comprehensive 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: 2 homes were authorized in 2025, versus a recent pace of about 1 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$434k±24620.0 at 90% confidence
Middle half of homes$377k–$483kLower to upper quartile of owner estimates
Luxury-home concentration0%≈0 homes · estimated at $2M+
Under $500k84%
$500–749k16%
$750–999k0%
$1–1.49M0%
$1.5–1.99M0%
$2M+0%

These estimates are useful as a distribution, but the survey intervals are too wide to rank Wilkeson 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

2 housing units across 2 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
2

Permit authorizations—not construction starts or completed homes.

Residential buildings, 2025
2

One building can contain one home or many housing units.

2023–2025 annual pace
1 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 Wilkeson’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

19% of observed resident job destinations in 2023 LODES.

Where resident workers go

Top observed workplace destinations.

Seattle19%
Peak drive: 75–140 min
Tacoma9%
Peak drive: 45–80 min
Enumclaw7%
Peak drive: 25–50 min
Auburn6%
Peak drive: 25–50 min
Buckley6%

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

How residents usually get to work

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

Starting area
Downtown Seattle employment core

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

80–140 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.

Tacoma employment area

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

45–80 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.

Enumclaw employment area

Enumclaw is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Wilkeson, representing 5% 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.

Auburn employment area

Auburn is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Wilkeson, representing 5% of matched resident jobs from this city.

25–50 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 Wilkeson; 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 Wilkeson

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.

Education footprint

The schools inside Wilkeson.

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 elementary1
  • Wilkeson Elementary SchoolWhite River School District
Public middle0

None in the current OSPI city-boundary match.

Public high0

None in the current OSPI city-boundary match.

Other public programs0

None in the current OSPI city-boundary match.

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

Wilkeson records relatively little retail activity for its population.

Retail sales per resident fall below 96% of the cities tracked by Metroscope. That may mean residents rely more on nearby cities for shopping, but sales records alone cannot prove where they shop.

Retail sales per resident, 2024
$3,895

Higher than 4% of 82 tracked cities.

Change from 2023
−2%

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
$6.1M

Includes taxable activity outside retail trade.

Retail share
32%

Retailing industries’ share of all taxable sales.

Tracked-city median
$10,670

Median retail sales per resident across cities with comparable data.

Civic life

Wilkeson is governed as a town—not a city.

Wilkeson 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
Travis Waldher

The separately elected chief executive.

Council representatives listed
4

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 Wilkeson council meet?

Regular meeting schedule listed in the current municipal directory:

2nd Wed - 6:00pm4th Wed - 6:00pm

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 Wilkeson 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
500

1% more from 2021 to 2026

Local jobs
28

26% fewer from 2018 to 2023

Retail trade, 2023–2024
−2%

Nominal taxable-sales change; not adjusted for inflation.

Data & details — selected comparable metrics across 82 places
Local jobs
LODES
28
1,506656,821
Higher than only 0% of places
Long-run job change
LODES
+65%
−3%+166%
Higher than 80% 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
$2,064
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
Hospitality29% (8)
Government (Public Administration)29% (8)
Administrative & Support Services21% (6)
Logistics / Industrial18% (5)
Other4% (1)
Construction / Real Estate0% (0)
Education (includes academia/research)0% (0)
Healthcare & Social Assistance0% (0)
Professional Services (partial technology proxy)0% (0)
Manufacturing (includes, but is not limited to, aerospace)0% (0)
Retail0% (0)
Information (partial technology proxy)0% (0)
Finance0% (0)
Where Wilkeson's workforce lives (inbound)
LODES OD — commuting flows into local jobs
Bonney Lake
28.6%
Auburn
14.3%
Covington
14.3%
Puyallup
14.3%
Enumclaw
14.3%