Bellingham vs Birch Bay

A side-by-side comparison of Bellingham and Birch Bay: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Bellingham has the higher population (92,367 vs 11,103 in Birch Bay). Birch Bay has the higher median household income ($77,120 vs $65,821 in Bellingham). Bellingham has the higher median home value ($577,400 vs $439,100 in Birch Bay).

Population, income & housing

	Bellingham	Birch Bay
Population	92,367	11,103
Median age	34.5 yrs	42.1 yrs
Median household income	$65,821	$77,120
Median home value	$577,400	$439,100
Median gross rent	$1,478	$1,201
Housing units	43,468	5,947
Homeownership rate	45.2%	81.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	46.5%	30.9%
Unemployment rate	5.6%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bellingham	Birch Bay
Population	88,764 → 92,367 (+4.1%)	9,323 → 11,103 (+19.1%)
Median household income	$53,396 → $65,821 (+23.3%)	$62,413 → $77,120 (+23.6%)
Median home value	$374,700 → $577,400 (+54.1%)	$274,300 → $439,100 (+60.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,056 → $1,478 (+40.0%)	$1,115 → $1,201 (+7.7%)

Bellingham

Population

88,76492,367

Median household income

$53,396$65,821

Median home value

$374,700$577,400

Median gross rent

$1,056$1,478

Birch Bay

Population

9,32311,103

Median household income

$62,413$77,120

Median home value

$274,300$439,100

Median gross rent

$1,115$1,201

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bellingham	Birch Bay
Under 5	3.5%	6.5%
5 to 17	10.4%	15.9%
18 to 24	20.9%	7.2%
25 to 34	15.9%	12.0%
35 to 44	12.5%	11.3%
45 to 54	10.5%	10.2%
55 to 64	9.8%	13.3%
65 to 74	9.6%	14.3%
75 and over	6.9%	9.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bellingham	Birch Bay
White (non-Hispanic)	76.3%	78.8%
Black or African American	1.2%	1.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.7%	0.8%
Asian	5.4%	1.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.9%
Some other race	0.2%	0.2%
Two or more races	6.0%	9.1%
Hispanic or Latino	10.0%	7.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bellingham	Birch Bay
No high school diploma	5.0%	6.6%
High school graduate	16.8%	21.1%
Some college or associate's	31.8%	41.4%
Bachelor's degree	27.4%	19.8%
Graduate or professional degree	19.1%	11.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bellingham	Birch Bay
Drove alone	63.5%	80.7%
Carpooled	7.5%	8.6%
Public transit	3.3%	0.3%
Walked	6.1%	0.9%
Bicycle	4.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	14.5%	9.5%
Other means	1.1%	0.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bellingham	Birch Bay
1-unit, detached	44.0%	71.8%
1-unit, attached	3.7%	2.4%
2 to 4 units	11.2%	2.4%
5 to 19 units	17.9%	5.4%
20 or more units	20.4%	0.5%
Mobile home & other	2.8%	17.4%

Poverty & households

	Bellingham	Birch Bay
Poverty rate	18.3%	8.6%
Average household size	2.15	2.34
Mean commute (minutes)	19	27
Median year structure built	1985	1990