State's fastest-growing city is still Vancouver

Vancouver remains the fastest-growing large city in Washington since the turn of the century, according to the latest Census Bureau estimates.

Seattle (594,210), Spokane (200,975), Tacoma (196,520) and Vancouver remained the four largest cities in the state, according to the Census Bureau.

Vancouver grew 11.5 percent from 2000 to July 1, 2007, adding 16,592 residents to reach a population of 161,436.

But that was only sufficient to rank 67th among the fastest-growing cities in the United States of more than 100,000 people over the period, as no large Washington cities have explosive growth.

Bellevue was second in growth rate, up 7.8 percent, or 8,790 residents, to reach 121,347 and was the state's fifth-largest city.

Between 2006 and 2007, Bellevue was the fastest-growing city in the state, up 2.7 percent by adding 3,161 people.

Since 2000, Seattle has added the most people, 30,835, a growth rate of 5.5 percent. That made the Emerald City the 24th largest in the nation, just behind Boston and just ahead of Nashville, Tenn. Oklahoma City, which recently landed the Seattle SuperSonics, is the 31st largest city at 547,274.

Spokane grew 2 percent and Tacoma 1.5 percent since 2000, the Census Bureau said.

After the five cities of more than 100,000 residents, the state's largest cities, with 2007 population estimates followed by 2000 Census numbers, were:

Everett, 98,295, up from 91,488.

Spokane Valley, 85,013, did not exist in 2000.

Federal Way, 84,819, up from 83,259.

Kent, 84,474, up from 79,524.

Yakima, 82,974, up from 71,845.

Bellingham, 77,503, up from 67,171.

Nationally, New Orleans was the fastest-growing large city in the nation between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, as people continue to move back after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. New Orleans' population rose by 13.8 percent to 239,124 during the one-year period, to lead all cities with populations of 100,000 or more in rate of increase.

New York remained the nation's most populous city, with 8.3 million residents.