Vancouver is a city located in Clark County Washington. Vancouver has a 2023 population of 194,384. It is also the county seat of Clark County.Vancouver is currently growing at a rate of 0.57% annually and its population has increased by 1.73% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 191,071 in 2020.
The average household income in Vancouver is $87,272 with a poverty rate of 12.71%. The median rental costs in recent years comes to - per month, and the median house value is -. The median age in Vancouver is 37.3 years, 36.2 years for males, and 38.2 years for females.
Vancouver is a city that is located in the state of Washington. It serves as the county seat for Clark County and is a suburb of Portland. Through the years, Vancouver has been named as one of the best places to live in the country.
The city’s largest employer is PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. Other significant employers include Evergreen Public Schools, Vancouver Public Schools, the County of Clark and Fred Meyer, each of which employs over 1,000 people.
Vancouver has seen extensive population growth. In some cases, it has been due to the expansion of the city limits through annexation. The largest growth occurred between the censuses taken in 1990 and 2000 when the population grew from just over 46,000 to over 143,000. Though growth in recent years hasn’t been quite as staggering, since the 2010 census, estimates show that the population has grown by over 8%, indicating that Vancouver is well on its way to hitting 200,000 residents in the near future.
The Chinook and Klickitat tribes were the original inhabitants of Vancouver. Europeans arrived in the late 1700s, bringing along with them smallpox which eradicated about half of the Native American population by the early 1800s. The population of these original inhabitants and their ancestors continued to decline with the introduction of other diseases including malaria and measles.
Despite arriving in the area in the 1700s, Europeans did not settle in what is now Vancouver until 1824. The city began as Fort Vancouver and served as a fur trading post. The area came under the control of the U.S. in 1846 following the signing of the Oregon Treaty. Shortly before this a claim was laid and registered under the name Vancouver City. The claim was traced over just a few short years later, with the name changing to Columbia City before being changed to its current name in 1855. Only two years later, it was incorporated as a city.
Vancouver was once the capital of the Washington Territory, but this only lasted for a short time before Olympia became the capital once again.
In the 1900s, the city became quite prosperous following an economic boom from its three shipyards. The city continued to grow with the addition of an aluminum plant, which was powered using hydropower turbines. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, one of Vancouver’s shipyards went to work producing various ships, with a population of shipyard employees expanding to over 80,000.
The city has seen rapid growth throughout the years following its incorporation, with multiple annexations occurring throughout its history. In the 1940s, the city experienced an industrial boom with the addition of shipyards and a paper mill. Today, however, the city’s economy is now mostly reliant on high tech and service industry jobs. The Port of Vancouver, the third largest in the state, continues to operate and sees over 400 vessels each year, as well as barges.
According to the most recent ACS, the racial composition of Vancouver was:
3.07
Average Family Size
2.46
Average Household Size
51.1%
Rate of Home Ownership
Married
Male
Female
NonFamily
owner
renter
Only English
Spanish
Other Indo-European Languages
Asian and Pacific Island Languages
Other Languages
80.34% of Vancouver residents speak only English, while 19.66% speak other languages. The non-English language spoken by the largest group is Spanish, which is spoken by 9.59% of the population.
12.71%
Overall Poverty Rate
11.41%
Male Poverty Rate
13.96%
Female Poverty Rate
The race most likely to be in poverty in Vancouver is Multiple, with 28.83% below the poverty level.
The race least likely to be in poverty in Vancouver is Native, with 10.53% below the poverty level.
The poverty rate among those that worked full-time for the past 12 months was 2.83%. Among those working part-time, it was 13.44%, and for those that did not work, the poverty rate was 20.24%.
Married
Widowed
Divorced
Separated
NeverMarried
45.2%
Overall Marriage Rate
46.4%
Male Marriage Rate
44.1%
Female Marriage Rate
male
female
The age group where males are most likely to be married is Over 65, while the female age group most likely to be married is 35-44.
Married
Widowed
Divorced
Separated
NeverMarried
Less Than 9th Grade
High School Graduate
Some College
Bachelors or Greater
8.59%
Veteran Poverty Rate
32.99%
Veteran Disability Rate
LaborForceParticipation
64.5%
Labor Force Participation
60.8%
Employment Rate
5.5%
Unemployment Rate
LaborForceParticipation
LaborForceParticipation
Europe
Asia
Africa
Oceania
Latin America
North America
Non citizens include legal permanent residents (green card holders), international students, temporary workers, humanitarian migrants, and illegal immigrants.
Europe
Asia
Africa
Oceania
Latin America
North America
30.96%
Born in Vancouver
84.59%
Native Born
13.41%
Foreign Born
6.53%
Non Citizen
6.88%
Naturalized
84.59% of Vancouver residents were born in the United States, with 30.96% having been born in Washington. 6.53% of residents are not US citizens. Of those not born in the United States, the largest percentage are from Latin America.