Yakima Valley Trends Blog – February 2024

In PEOPLE:

0.2.1  Average Number of People per Household  

Yakima County has large households, and likely families. The 2022 estimate from Census put the average number at 2.97 people. Washington State and U.S. averages are significantly lower – by about half a person. The size is larger than in the U.S. and Washington state. As the graph shows, there have been and continue to be strong differences between Upper Valley and Lower Valley households, with the latter nearly 4 persons per household.  

0.2.5  Total and Share of Households with Internet Connection 

Nearly 80,000 households in Yakima County reported to Census as having access to the Internet at home in 2022. This implied a rate of about 90%. Internet penetration today is far greater than it was a decade ago, when it stood at 72%. Currently, the county rate is statistically the same as the U.S. rate, but still a bit lower than the state rate. The differences among different parts of the county are not great. 

0.3.3 Population of People of Color (POC) as a Share of Total Population  

Yakima has been a “majority minority” county since at least 2010. The combined share of People of Color in 2022 was 61%, considerably above the estimate in 2010 of 50%.  Not surprisingly, Hispanic/Latinos/as take up the bulk of the POC population here, with an estimated 53% share in 2022. The segment of the population taken up by this group is far greater than its shares of the U.S. and Washington populations. In the Mid and Lower Valley regions of the County, POC shares are higher yet.  

(Click on the legend entries to simplify the graph.) 

In ECONOMIC VITALITY:

3.1.1  Per Capita Personal Income 

Per capita personal income is one of the signature measures of economic well-being. (Others include:  the jobless rate, average earnings and median household income.) For the first time since the Great Recession (2008), per capita income in the Yakima County in 2022 fell from the prior year – by nearly $400, to about $49,300. A decline was not the case in the U.S. and Washington state, where the rate of growth slowed but didn’t turn negative.  

The drop is entirely due to the decline in federal transfer payments. They soared during the pandemic, reaching 1/3 out of every dollar in the county economy in 2021. In 2022, transfer payments share of the local economy fell by $600 million, approaching a pre-pandemic share of 26%. 

3.3.6  Share of Workforce Who Are Self-Employed  

The self-employed are typically defined as those who work for themselves and do not pay into the unemployment insurance pool and hence are not captured in most official labor statistics. For 2022, Census estimates put the share in this category at nearly 11% of the total workforce (those covered and not covered by unemployment insurance.) This share was slightly larger than the those of the U.S. and Washington state. For most of the period since 2005, however, the self-employed in Yakima County have made up a smaller part of the total workforce than in the benchmarks. 

3.4.2  Total Residential Building Permits and Permits Per 1,000 Residents 

In nearly all regional economies, the construction sector lands in the top six to eight sectors by total wages paid or employment. Residential building usually dominates the sector. Residential permits jumped in pandemic year 2021 to the second-highest year on record, but fell substantially in 2022. Over the past few years, multi-family permits have become more important. Since the turn of the century, the rate of residential permits per 1,000 residents has, in most years, rested considerably below the rates in the U.S. and Washington state.

In HEALTH:

7.3.2  Share of Adults Diagnosed with Diabetes 

Diabetes is a serious chronic disease linked to cardiac complications, neuropathy, amputation and sometimes early death. There two types – juvenile (Type 1) and adult-onset (Type 2). The estimate here covers both but is most likely dominated by Type 2, a condition largely preventable. In 2021 (the most recent available year), the Centers for Disease Control estimated that about 14% of all adults in Yakima County were diabetic. That is a considerably higher rate than throughout the state (8%). 

Over time, Yakima County adults have shown a significantly higher rate of diabetes than the average Washington adult. 

In HOUSING:

8.1.1  Owner-Occupied Housing Units as a Share of All Housing Units 

Housing units may be rented or owned. The most recent estimate (for 2022) for Yakima County puts the rate of home ownership at 63%. This is very similar to rate for Washington state (64%) and for the U.S. (65%). Since 2007, the rate in the county has slipped a bit, but not by much.  

Among the parts of the county, home ownership is lower than the county average in the city of Yakima and the Lower Valley. 

8.2.1  Total and Share of Renting Households Paying 30% or More of Household Income for Shelter Costs  

A rule of thumb for affordable rental housing is the 30% threshold:  rent plus ancillary costs should not exceed 30% of income. Above that threshold, a household is seen as “rent burdened.” For 2022, Census estimates put the number of Yakima County renters in that category at nearly 14,500. This represented about 45% of all renters. While the 2022 estimate represents a significant increase from 2021, the rate in this category is still below the U.S. and Washington state rates. Generally, rental housing has produced less “burden” in Yakima than in the U.S. and the state.  

Among the county’s regions, the city of Yakima shows the highest percentage of rent-burdened households. 

(Click on the legend entries to simplify the graph.) 

In TRANSPORTATION:

10.1.2  Share of Commuters Using Alternative Transportation 

The Census tracks at least five types of transportation to work other than using one’s privately-owned vehicle:  carpooling, bicycling, walking, taxi or working from home. In light of the huge presence of horticulture in the county, the largest share in Yakima of “alternative commuters” has been those who carpool. This was true in pandemic year 2021 and 2022. The biggest change occurred among those who worked from home. The 2022 estimate of nearly 8% was nearly three times as large as the 2019 estimate. 

In the benchmarks, however, the ranking of the two modes has reversed:  work from home is much important now than carpooling. For Washington state in 2022, the estimated working-from-home share was 21%; the share in the U.S., 15%. 

(Click on the legend entries to simplify the graph.) 

List updated 2.7.23