Lakewood vs Tacoma

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

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

Tacoma has the higher population (220,482 vs 63,034 in Lakewood). Tacoma has the higher median household income ($83,857 vs $70,524 in Lakewood). Tacoma has the higher median home value ($454,600 vs $420,500 in Lakewood).

Population, income & housing

	Lakewood	Tacoma
Population	63,034	220,482
Median age	36.3 yrs	37.3 yrs
Median household income	$70,524	$83,857
Median home value	$420,500	$454,600
Median gross rent	$1,460	$1,597
Housing units	28,010	96,151
Homeownership rate	44.8%	56.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.6%	33.5%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lakewood	Tacoma
Population	60,111 → 63,034 (+4.9%)	212,869 → 220,482 (+3.6%)
Median household income	$51,972 → $70,524 (+35.7%)	$62,358 → $83,857 (+34.5%)
Median home value	$269,200 → $420,500 (+56.2%)	$277,900 → $454,600 (+63.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,034 → $1,460 (+41.2%)	$1,180 → $1,597 (+35.3%)

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

Tacoma

Population

212,869220,482

Median household income

$62,358$83,857

Median home value

$277,900$454,600

Median gross rent

$1,180$1,597

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lakewood	Tacoma
Under 5	5.9%	5.7%
5 to 17	14.7%	13.9%
18 to 24	9.6%	9.0%
25 to 34	17.9%	17.5%
35 to 44	12.3%	15.4%
45 to 54	10.6%	11.9%
55 to 64	12.4%	12.1%
65 to 74	10.4%	9.0%
75 and over	6.2%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lakewood	Tacoma
White (non-Hispanic)	44.1%	56.1%
Black or African American	12.7%	10.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.9%
Asian	7.2%	8.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	3.7%	0.9%
Some other race	0.8%	0.6%
Two or more races	10.8%	9.7%
Hispanic or Latino	20.2%	13.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lakewood	Tacoma
No high school diploma	12.9%	8.7%
High school graduate	25.4%	25.6%
Some college or associate's	39.1%	32.2%
Bachelor's degree	13.3%	21.0%
Graduate or professional degree	9.3%	12.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lakewood	Tacoma
Drove alone	74.9%	67.1%
Carpooled	12.1%	10.2%
Public transit	3.1%	4.7%
Walked	1.3%	2.6%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.4%
Worked from home	7.1%	13.7%
Other means	0.7%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lakewood	Tacoma
1-unit, detached	44.0%	61.6%
1-unit, attached	5.6%	3.0%
2 to 4 units	12.8%	7.2%
5 to 19 units	22.9%	12.0%
20 or more units	10.4%	15.7%
Mobile home & other	4.3%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	Lakewood	Tacoma
Poverty rate	13.6%	12.0%
Average household size	2.36	2.35
Mean commute (minutes)	29	29
Median year structure built	1974	1967