Federal Way vs Kent

A side-by-side comparison of Federal Way and Kent: population, income, housing, and more.

Federal Way and Kent are places in Washington. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Kent has the higher population (135,015 vs 99,232 in Federal Way). Kent has the higher median household income ($90,416 vs $82,144 in Federal Way). Kent has the higher median home value ($537,500 vs $499,600 in Federal Way).

Population, income & housing

	Federal Way	Kent
Population	99,232	135,015
Median age	37.6 yrs	35.3 yrs
Median household income	$82,144	$90,416
Median home value	$499,600	$537,500
Median gross rent	$1,738	$1,833
Housing units	38,251	48,933
Homeownership rate	55.7%	56.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	31.1%	29.4%
Unemployment rate	5.9%	7.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Federal Way	Kent
Population	96,526 → 99,232 (+2.8%)	131,118 → 135,015 (+3.0%)
Median household income	$67,347 → $82,144 (+22.0%)	$72,062 → $90,416 (+25.5%)
Median home value	$328,800 → $499,600 (+51.9%)	$346,400 → $537,500 (+55.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,334 → $1,738 (+30.3%)	$1,385 → $1,833 (+32.3%)

Federal Way

Population

96,52699,232

Median household income

$67,347$82,144

Median home value

$328,800$499,600

Median gross rent

$1,334$1,738

Kent

Population

131,118135,015

Median household income

$72,062$90,416

Median home value

$346,400$537,500

Median gross rent

$1,385$1,833

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Federal Way	Kent
Under 5	6.7%	6.1%
5 to 17	16.3%	17.9%
18 to 24	8.6%	8.9%
25 to 34	15.2%	16.6%
35 to 44	13.1%	14.5%
45 to 54	11.9%	12.0%
55 to 64	13.7%	12.7%
65 to 74	8.5%	6.9%
75 and over	5.9%	4.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Federal Way	Kent
White (non-Hispanic)	35.8%	37.6%
Black or African American	17.4%	13.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	0.4%
Asian	14.4%	22.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	3.2%	2.6%
Some other race	0.5%	0.3%
Two or more races	9.2%	7.0%
Hispanic or Latino	19.0%	16.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Federal Way	Kent
No high school diploma	9.8%	13.1%
High school graduate	26.8%	24.9%
Some college or associate's	32.3%	32.7%
Bachelor's degree	21.1%	21.1%
Graduate or professional degree	10.0%	8.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Federal Way	Kent
Drove alone	68.0%	69.8%
Carpooled	11.3%	11.1%
Public transit	5.2%	5.1%
Walked	1.5%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	12.5%	11.5%
Other means	1.4%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Federal Way	Kent
1-unit, detached	48.7%	51.3%
1-unit, attached	3.4%	6.8%
2 to 4 units	12.4%	5.1%
5 to 19 units	20.7%	20.7%
20 or more units	10.8%	12.8%
Mobile home & other	4.0%	3.2%

Poverty & households

	Federal Way	Kent
Poverty rate	12.7%	10.6%
Average household size	2.70	2.85
Mean commute (minutes)	32	30
Median year structure built	1984	1985