Updated April 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau data
Washington City Spending Rankings
Washington has 26 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 3.2M in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 59/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. Washington's covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 59/100 (grade C), squarely in the middle of the national distribution. Some Washington cities are running clean books and adequately funded pensions; others are showing strain on debt service or pension contributions. The split is visible in the rankings below.
Washington Fiscal Profile
Across all covered Washington cities, the largest aggregate spending categories are parks at $5.4B and fire protection at $2.0B. That mix reflects Washington's overall service-delivery model, in some states police and fire dominate; in others, education or roads take the largest aggregate share when cities operate their own school districts.
Healthiest and Most Stressed Cities
Top Fiscal Performers
Most Fiscally Stressed
All 26 Cities in Washington
Seattle, WA
Pop. 735K
Spokane, WA
Pop. 228K
Tacoma, WA
Pop. 219K
Vancouver, WA
Pop. 191K
Bellevue, WA
Pop. 151K
Kent, WA
Pop. 135K
Everett, WA
Pop. 111K
Renton, WA
Pop. 105K
Spokane Valley, WA
Pop. 104K
Federal Way, WA
Pop. 100K
Yakima, WA
Pop. 97K
Kirkland, WA
Pop. 92K
Bellingham, WA
Pop. 91K
Auburn, WA
Pop. 86K
Kennewick, WA
Pop. 84K
Pasco, WA
Pop. 77K
Redmond, WA
Pop. 74K
Marysville, WA
Pop. 71K
South Hill, WA
Pop. 68K
Sammamish, WA
Pop. 67K
Lakewood, WA
Pop. 63K
Richland, WA
Pop. 61K
Shoreline, WA
Pop. 59K
Lacey, WA
Pop. 56K
Olympia, WA
Pop. 55K
Burien, WA
Pop. 52K
How These Rankings Are Calculated
City Fiscal Health Scores combine budget balance and reserves (25%), debt burden per capita (20%), pension funded ratio (20%), spending efficiency (15%), revenue diversity (10%), and three-year trend direction (10%). All inputs come from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district and county overlap. Pension data comes from the Public Plans Database. Best-practice weighting follows guidance from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Read the full methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many cities in Washington are covered by CitySpend?
CitySpend covers 26 cities in Washington with 50,000 or more residents, totaling 3.2M in population. Smaller municipalities, towns, and unincorporated areas are excluded from the dataset.
What is Washington's average Fiscal Health Score?
Washington's 26 covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 59/100. The score combines budget balance and reserves, debt burden per capita, pension funding, spending efficiency, revenue diversity, and three-year trend direction. Each city is benchmarked against population peers, so a 200,000-resident city is compared to other mid-size cities, not against the largest cities in the country.
Where does Washington city spending data come from?
Every figure on this page is drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, with population estimates from the American Community Survey. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district overlap. Federal grant flows come from USASpending.gov; pension data, where available, comes from the Public Plans Database.
Which Washington cities have the strongest fiscal health?
Shoreline (A), Marysville (B), Renton (B) rank among the top fiscal performers in Washington. Strong scores typically pair balanced budgets with low debt-per-capita and well-funded pensions. See the rankings below for the full list.
Which Washington cities are most fiscally stressed?
Redmond (D), Vancouver (D), Auburn (D) rank toward the bottom of the Washington fiscal health distribution. Common stress signals include pension underfunding, elevated debt service, and revenue concentration in a single tax source. A low score is a screening signal, not a verdict, always read the city's audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (ACFR) before drawing conclusions.
Washington has 26 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 3.2M in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 59/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. Washington's covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 59/100 (grade C), squarely in the middle of the national distribution. Some Washington cities are running clean books and adequately funded pensions; others are showing strain on debt service or pension contributions. The split is visible in the rankings below.
The this entity record above pulls directly from the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. What follows is the per-entity context — how this entity sits in the broader U.S. municipal and county government finances distribution and which underlying factors drive the headline numbers.
Every number on this page links back to the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.
Practical use of this page is in combination with the comparison and ranking pages elsewhere on the site, which surface the same data for this entity’s peers within U.S. cities, counties, and states. A single-entity reading without peer context can be misleading when an entity is an outlier on one axis but typical on another.