Federal Way vs Kirkland

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

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

Federal Way has the higher population (99,232 vs 91,614 in Kirkland). Kirkland has the higher median household income ($143,533 vs $82,144 in Federal Way). Kirkland has the higher median home value ($1,022,500 vs $499,600 in Federal Way).

Population, income & housing

	Federal Way	Kirkland
Population	99,232	91,614
Median age	37.6 yrs	38.2 yrs
Median household income	$82,144	$143,533
Median home value	$499,600	$1,022,500
Median gross rent	$1,738	$2,342
Housing units	38,251	40,264
Homeownership rate	55.7%	61.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	31.1%	64.4%
Unemployment rate	5.9%	4.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Federal Way	Kirkland
Population	96,526 → 99,232 (+2.8%)	89,438 → 91,614 (+2.4%)
Median household income	$67,347 → $82,144 (+22.0%)	$117,190 → $143,533 (+22.5%)
Median home value	$328,800 → $499,600 (+51.9%)	$662,300 → $1,022,500 (+54.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,334 → $1,738 (+30.3%)	$1,861 → $2,342 (+25.8%)

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

Kirkland

Population

89,43891,614

Median household income

$117,190$143,533

Median home value

$662,300$1,022,500

Median gross rent

$1,861$2,342

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Federal Way	Kirkland
Under 5	6.7%	5.7%
5 to 17	16.3%	14.0%
18 to 24	8.6%	7.1%
25 to 34	15.2%	17.5%
35 to 44	13.1%	16.6%
45 to 54	11.9%	13.2%
55 to 64	13.7%	11.7%
65 to 74	8.5%	9.0%
75 and over	5.9%	5.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Federal Way	Kirkland
White (non-Hispanic)	35.8%	65.2%
Black or African American	17.4%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	0.3%
Asian	14.4%	17.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	3.2%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.9%
Two or more races	9.2%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	19.0%	7.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Federal Way	Kirkland
No high school diploma	9.8%	3.1%
High school graduate	26.8%	10.9%
Some college or associate's	32.3%	21.5%
Bachelor's degree	21.1%	38.0%
Graduate or professional degree	10.0%	26.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Federal Way	Kirkland
Drove alone	68.0%	55.8%
Carpooled	11.3%	5.6%
Public transit	5.2%	4.6%
Walked	1.5%	2.8%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.7%
Worked from home	12.5%	29.1%
Other means	1.4%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Federal Way	Kirkland
1-unit, detached	48.7%	54.2%
1-unit, attached	3.4%	5.4%
2 to 4 units	12.4%	4.6%
5 to 19 units	20.7%	16.6%
20 or more units	10.8%	19.2%
Mobile home & other	4.0%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Federal Way	Kirkland
Poverty rate	12.7%	6.0%
Average household size	2.70	2.37
Mean commute (minutes)	32	24
Median year structure built	1984	1983