Which King County neighborhoods have the most tech workers

In the 2010s, Seattle was the fastest-growing big city in the nation, and the tech sector drove much of that growth. Thousands moved here to fill newly created tech jobs, and by 2016, software developer had become the No. 1 occupation in Seattle.

As of 2021, King County was home to more tech workers than any county in the U.S. According to census data, roughly 150,000 county residents worked in computer and mathematical occupations, which pencils out to 1 out of 8 employed people in the county.

The tech hiring spree seemed like it might never end, but that changed with the recent spate of layoff announcements from a host of tech firms, including Amazon, Redfin, Twitter and Facebook’s parent company Meta.

We don’t know yet how many Seattle-area workers will lose their jobs and exactly how the layoffs will affect the Emerald City. But using data for census tracts, we can locate the neighborhoods where tech workers are most heavily concentrated — and which might feel the biggest effect of this round of layoffs.

The data for census tracts comes from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2020, the most recent release available. Tracts are relatively small areas, typically with around 3,000 to 6,000 residents. The Census Bureau averages five years of surveys to produce the data for tracts, so the data is an average of the 2016-2020 period.

Not surprisingly, the tract with the highest percentage of tech workers is in the heart of South Lake Union, and includes many office buildings that are part of the Amazon and Google campuses. This tract is, in fact, the only one in King County where the majority of employed residents worked in tech occupations.

This tracts runs from Denny Way to Lake Union, and is bordered on the west by Westlake Avenue North and on the east by Minor Avenue North. Census data shows that of the 1,600 employed residents in this area, more than 900, or 57%, worked in computer and mathematical occupations.

This area has a lot of newer apartment buildings, and census data shows practically everyone who lived here (92%) moved in some time since 2010. Most residents are young adults, with a median age of 31, and more than 70% of residents were single. Nearly all housing units (93%) were rented. And the neighborhood has hardly any children — fewer than 100.

With so many tech workers in the area, incomes were, as you might expect, on the high side — the median for households was $107,000.

Most residents of this tract have a high level of education, with 82% of those ages 25 and older having at least a bachelor’s degree.

Many of Seattle’s tech workers moved here from overseas, and census data shows 38% of this tract’s residents were born outside the U.S. That’s double the citywide rate of foreign-born residents.

Besides South Lake Union, other Seattle neighborhoods with high percentages of tech workers included Westlake and Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine corridor.

After South Lake Union, the second highest concentration of tech workers was on the Eastside in a tract that encompasses downtown Redmond and is near the Microsoft campus. Around 1,600 people who lived in this area were employed in tech, representing 49% of all employed residents.

The demographic profile of this area is similar in many ways to the tract in South Lake Union. The median age is 30 and nearly all households are renters (97%). The median household income is $108,000. Many people who live here (52%) were born in a foreign country, and the education level is high, with 69% of those 25 years and older having at least a bachelor’s degree.

But there is one big difference: Residents are not overwhelmingly single as in South Lake Union. Roughly half the adult population is married in downtown Redmond. Still, there aren’t many children, with just 7% of residents under 18.

Five census tracts not far from downtown Redmond have more than 40% of employed residents working in tech occupations. These tracts are in the Overlake neighborhood in Redmond, and Bellevue’s Bridle Trails, Crossroads/Lake Hills, Bel-Red and downtown neighborhoods.

Few places in King County have no one working in tech jobs. Among the county’s 494 census tracts, there were four where the Census Bureau did not locate a single tech worker. These tracts, all in South King County, were in South Auburn, Federal Way’s Adelaide neighborhood, Lakeland North and Kent’s Seven Oaks neighborhood.