Future Cities

Published by Steve Campion. Category: Counties & Towns

Some of their names appear on a map now and then, but more often they’re the spaces on a map between cities.  You could walk every street and not find a city hall … yet.

We’re speaking of CDPs — census-designated places.  Many of them are vibrant unincorporated communities with residents and businesses associating under a commonly accepted name.  In other cases, they are statistical conveniences invented by the US Census to clump clusters of people who coincidentally live in close proximity.  Either way, there is no organized formality to a CDP.  They’re people living near each other.

Below we list the 20 largest CDPs in Washington State today.  There’s no guarantee city-hood movements will take hold in any of them, but if you’re looking for potential towns, this list might give you some good bets.  A similar list a few decades ago would have included such current cities as Covington, Federal Way, Lakewood, Sammamish, and University Place. And like those former CDPs, those in the current crop have substantial population bases.  The South Hill community near Puyallup, for instance, would instantly become the 20th largest city in the state if incorporated tomorrow.  It won’t incorporate tomorrow, but maybe in ten years.  Or twenty.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

MOST POPULOUS UNINCORPORATED COMMUNITIES IN WASHINGTON

Rank	Census Designated Place	County	Population (2010)
1.	South Hill	Pierce	52,431
2.	Parkland	Pierce	35,803
3.	East Hill-Meridian	King	29,878
4.	Spanaway	Pierce	27,227
5.	Graham	Pierce	23,491
6.	Inglewood-Finn Hill	King	22,707
7.	Cottage Lake	King	22,494
8.	Seattle Hill-Silver Firs	King	20,891
9.	Eastmont	Snohomish	20,101
10.	Salmon Creek	Clark	19,686
11.	Orchards	Clark	19,556
12.	Hazel Dell	Clark	19,435
13.	Silverdale	Kitsap	19,204
14.	Cascade-Fairwood	King	19,102
15.	Union Hill-Novelty Hill	King	18,805
16.	Frederickson	Pierce	18,719
17.	Five Corners	Clark	18,159
18.	Bothell West	Snohomish	16.607
19.	North Lynnwood	Snohomish	16,574
20.	Mill Creek East	Snohomish	15,709

Source: US Census

PHOTO © Steve Campion

March 9th, 2012

Subscribe to the
WA-List feeds!