In this blog, we showcase a few of the indicators that have been recently updated.
We publish the blog semi-annually. Don’t miss an update – subscribe today!
Trends Update List
in PEOPLE:
The Tri Cities are slowly getting older.
The estimate of a community’s median age is an attempt to describe the entire distribution of ages via one middle value. The median divides a set of numbers into two equal halves.
By this measure, the population of Benton and Franklin Counties is aging, but slowly. Its median in 2024, the most recent year for Census estimates, was 35.1 years. A decade ago, the median was 33.5. The current median here is still much lower than in the state or U.S. Their median ages are 38.7 and 39.2 years, respectively.
Large differences characterize the age of the population between the two counties, and ultimately the three largest cities, as one can explore via the radio buttons on the graph.
The immigrant population is still large here.
The Census estimates the number of immigrants a couple different ways. The method covered in this indicator is the share of the non-infant population who does not speak English at home. This estimate, of course, captures American-born children who speak their parents’ native tongue at home. As such then, this measure looks at the share of the population taken by immigrant families.
For 2024, the estimate for the greater Tri Cities was 31%. This is about the same as a decade ago. As the graph reveals, this is much higher share than observed for the U.S. (23%) or the state (22.5%) in 2024.
A huge difference characterizes the two counties, with nearly half of Franklin County’s population currently falling into this category.
in AGRICULTURE:
Food & beverage manufacturers remain a force here.
Adding value to the farm-gate price of agricultural goods is a targeted strategy of many agricultural regions. By this measure, the greater Tri Cities should be considered a successful implementer of the strategy.
In 2024, 119 firms were processing the bounty of the land in the two counties. This count has largely held the same since the start of the pandemic. In context, the workforce employed at these firms amounted to 4.9% of the total two-county workforce. This is a slightly higher share than a decade prior and certainly a higher count than a decade prior.
in CULTURE, RECREATION & TOURISM:
Visitor spending in the greater Tri Cities has recently plateaued.
Expenditures by visitors, whether here for pleasure or business, can be significant contributors to the local economy. Spending at eating & drinking establishments, accommodations providers, entertainment and sports events, etc, by visitors represents an injection of “new dollars” into the economy. This indicator tracks total and per capita visitor spending in the two counties, with the data provided by Visit Tri Cities.
For the latest available year (2024), total visitor spending was estimated at approximately $643 million. (2025 results should be available soon.) This sum represents the highest level yet and certainly far higher than spending estimated for pre-pandemic year 2019, at about $496 million.
Yet, the recent pace of growth has slowed, as the last three years in the graph reveal.
in ECONOMIC VITALITY:
Per capita income in the greater Tri Cities growing relatively slowly.
One of the key measures of economic progress is the “middle value” in the distribution of an area residents’ income. One can use the median as indicator 3.1.2 does for households. Or we can consider the simple average, one that accounts for the entire population. This indicator looks at the latter measure.
For 2024, the per capita, or average, value of personal income (PCPI) in the greater Tri Cities was nearly $57 thousand, or $56,966. This represented a 4% increase over 2023. This increase lagged those of the U.S. (4.6%) and the state (5%), however.
And the gaps between here and the parallel values for the U.S. and the state remain huge. The gap between the greater Tri Cities and the U.S. in 2024 was 22%; the gap between here and the state: 33%. The size of these gaps is larger here than for the “sister” measure, median household income. A good part of the reason lies in high percentage of children in the greater Tri Cities, who in most cases are not earning any income and a part of the calculation, unlike in median household income.
In ECONOMIC VITALITY cont.:
Annual residential building permits.
The pace of residential construction for a growing population matters. Without a parallel rise in supply, new residents will either face a dearth of dwelling options or rapidly rising prices for them. Furthermore, construction generally is a pillar of any local or regional economy. Permitted units offer a window into an additional supply of housing that will come to market typically within a year.
This indicator tracks permitted units for both single- and multi-family projects. As the graph reveals, 2025 was a robust year, with the number of permitted units, at 2,386, reaching the third-highest level since the turn of the century. A good part of the increases over the past three years have come from a surge in permitted multi-family units.
As a rate per 1,000 residents, residential permitting in the two counties has nearly always been higher than either the state or national rates. In the past three years, this gap has accelerated.
To simplify the graph, click on the item(s) in the legend you would like to hide.
The past few years have not been kind to low-income Tri Citians. For 2024, Census estimated that 41,300 individuals fell at or below the poverty level. These levels are determined by thresholds that are time- and family-size-specific. For example, for a family of two adults and two children, the threshold was $31,800 in 2024 and about $31,000 in 2023. An Income slightly above these thresholds implies that the family is not officially in poverty.
The total number of residents of the two counties in poverty in 2024 was the highest in a decade (since 2015). The same comparison applies to the current rate of 13.1%. After many years of lying below the U.S. rate, the two-county rate in 2024 rose. It has almost always been higher than the state rate.
in HEALTH:
The number of residents without health insurance jumped in 2024.
Without health insurance, care is either delayed, foregone or delivered in expensive settings such as a hospital emergency department. Based on estimates from Census, it appears that many more residents faced these alternatives in 2024 than in the past decade.
Census estimated that over 38,400 residents had no health insurance in that year. This is much higher than in 2023, when the estimate was approximately 11,000 fewer. This is the highest estimated count since the year before the advent of the Affordable Care Act, 2013, when the number stood at 47,400. And the current rate, at 12.2%, is the highest since 2014. The local rate is now considerably higher than those of the U.S. (8.2%) and Washington State (6.5%) It is also much higher than most eastern Washington metro areas.
Physicians are still relatively scarce in the greater Tri Cities.
Beyond insurance, healthcare delivery depends on an ample number of providers. While those can be nurse practitioners or nurses, the measure here concerns physicians, either MDs or DOs. The latest data available are from 2023. Current data, once the numbers arrive, is likely the similar.
For 2023, the Office of Financial Management, employing licensure data, put the total number of physicians in the two counties at 877. This was down from the peak of 903 the prior year. But the count is slightly above the years immediately preceding 2022 and certainly above the start of the series, at 695.
As a rate per 1,000 residents, however, the 2024 value of 2.77 physicians hasn’t budged much since 2016. And it remains quite a bit lower than the state average.
in HOUSING:
Typically, the largest purchase a household will make is a house. Consequently, from a consumer’s perspective, housing prices matter. They strongly shape whether apartment dwellers will make the switch to home ownership, whether existing homeowners will “trade up,” or whether those considering a move to the area, in part due to favorable housing conditions, will come.
This indicator, from the Washington State Center on Real Estate Research, tracks the price of homes that have already been built and occupied at least one time. In other words, new construction is not included. It uses the median as a measure of the middle price of all resale homes on the market.
With a median price of about $444,000, homes sold during the first quarter of this year continued the trend of the past three-plus years, moving in a narrow range of between $425,000 and $445,000. Note that the median resale price for the entire state has been approximately $200,000 higher since the onset of the pandemic.
list updated 06.11.2026
New Intern Features
Moon Alvarez
Hometown: Wapato, WA
Major: Accounting and Human Resources
Expected Graduation Date: Spring 2028
Post-graduation plans: Follow the job opportunities, whether here or elsewhere.
After a few months of working on the Trends project, my favorite thing so far: My favorite thing so far is updating the indicators! I've always been a big numbers person. Updating indicators and seeing the way everything has changed over time is extremely interesting.
Janay Bowen
Hometown: San Jose, CA
Major: Professional Accounting
Expected Graduation Date: Spring 2027
Post-graduations plans: Work at a local accounting firm to become a CPA!
After a few months of working on the Trends project, my favorite thing so far: My favorite thing so far working on Trends projects is when I get into the flow state of work and I am understanding and creating spreadsheets that I know help the counties we work for.