Lakewood vs Puyallup

A side-by-side comparison of Lakewood and Puyallup: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lakewood has the higher population (63,034 vs 42,642 in Puyallup). Puyallup has the higher median household income ($95,639 vs $70,524 in Lakewood). Puyallup has the higher median home value ($507,000 vs $420,500 in Lakewood).

Population, income & housing

	Lakewood	Puyallup
Population	63,034	42,642
Median age	36.3 yrs	37.2 yrs
Median household income	$70,524	$95,639
Median home value	$420,500	$507,000
Median gross rent	$1,460	$1,750
Housing units	28,010	17,537
Homeownership rate	44.8%	51.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.6%	28.3%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lakewood	Puyallup
Population	60,111 → 63,034 (+4.9%)	40,991 → 42,642 (+4.0%)
Median household income	$51,972 → $70,524 (+35.7%)	$73,248 → $95,639 (+30.6%)
Median home value	$269,200 → $420,500 (+56.2%)	$329,000 → $507,000 (+54.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,034 → $1,460 (+41.2%)	$1,288 → $1,750 (+35.9%)

Lakewood

Population

60,11163,034

Median household income

$51,972$70,524

Median home value

$269,200$420,500

Median gross rent

$1,034$1,460

Puyallup

Population

40,99142,642

Median household income

$73,248$95,639

Median home value

$329,000$507,000

Median gross rent

$1,288$1,750

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lakewood	Puyallup
Under 5	5.9%	6.2%
5 to 17	14.7%	15.7%
18 to 24	9.6%	8.7%
25 to 34	17.9%	17.1%
35 to 44	12.3%	13.9%
45 to 54	10.6%	11.6%
55 to 64	12.4%	11.6%
65 to 74	10.4%	8.1%
75 and over	6.2%	7.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lakewood	Puyallup
White (non-Hispanic)	44.1%	69.9%
Black or African American	12.7%	4.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.3%
Asian	7.2%	6.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	3.7%	0.6%
Some other race	0.8%	0.9%
Two or more races	10.8%	7.9%
Hispanic or Latino	20.2%	10.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lakewood	Puyallup
No high school diploma	12.9%	6.6%
High school graduate	25.4%	28.6%
Some college or associate's	39.1%	36.5%
Bachelor's degree	13.3%	20.0%
Graduate or professional degree	9.3%	8.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lakewood	Puyallup
Drove alone	74.9%	75.5%
Carpooled	12.1%	9.4%
Public transit	3.1%	2.2%
Walked	1.3%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.1%
Worked from home	7.1%	10.7%
Other means	0.7%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lakewood	Puyallup
1-unit, detached	44.0%	55.2%
1-unit, attached	5.6%	2.9%
2 to 4 units	12.8%	11.7%
5 to 19 units	22.9%	17.4%
20 or more units	10.4%	11.7%
Mobile home & other	4.3%	1.2%

Poverty & households

	Lakewood	Puyallup
Poverty rate	13.6%	7.5%
Average household size	2.36	2.51
Mean commute (minutes)	29	32
Median year structure built	1974	1986