Bellingham vs Sudden Valley

A side-by-side comparison of Bellingham and Sudden Valley: population, income, housing, and more.

Bellingham and Sudden Valley 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 6,963 in Sudden Valley). Sudden Valley has the higher median household income ($98,865 vs $65,821 in Bellingham). Bellingham has the higher median home value ($577,400 vs $450,500 in Sudden Valley).

Population, income & housing

	Bellingham	Sudden Valley
Population	92,367	6,963
Median age	34.5 yrs	41.9 yrs
Median household income	$65,821	$98,865
Median home value	$577,400	$450,500
Median gross rent	$1,478	$1,930
Housing units	43,468	3,068
Homeownership rate	45.2%	92.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	46.5%	49.8%
Unemployment rate	5.6%	2.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bellingham	Sudden Valley
Population	88,764 → 92,367 (+4.1%)	8,072 → 6,963 (-13.7%)
Median household income	$53,396 → $65,821 (+23.3%)	$86,064 → $98,865 (+14.9%)
Median home value	$374,700 → $577,400 (+54.1%)	$314,300 → $450,500 (+43.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,056 → $1,478 (+40.0%)	$1,800 → $1,930 (+7.2%)

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

Sudden Valley

Population

8,0726,963

Median household income

$86,064$98,865

Median home value

$314,300$450,500

Median gross rent

$1,800$1,930

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bellingham	Sudden Valley
Under 5	3.5%	4.2%
5 to 17	10.4%	15.5%
18 to 24	20.9%	3.1%
25 to 34	15.9%	17.4%
35 to 44	12.5%	14.2%
45 to 54	10.5%	11.7%
55 to 64	9.8%	12.4%
65 to 74	9.6%	13.5%
75 and over	6.9%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bellingham	Sudden Valley
White (non-Hispanic)	76.3%	77.0%
Black or African American	1.2%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.7%	0.0%
Asian	5.4%	1.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.4%
Some other race	0.2%	1.0%
Two or more races	6.0%	9.4%
Hispanic or Latino	10.0%	9.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bellingham	Sudden Valley
No high school diploma	5.0%	2.5%
High school graduate	16.8%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	31.8%	34.5%
Bachelor's degree	27.4%	30.7%
Graduate or professional degree	19.1%	19.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bellingham	Sudden Valley
Drove alone	63.5%	73.4%
Carpooled	7.5%	11.1%
Public transit	3.3%	1.0%
Walked	6.1%	0.1%
Bicycle	4.0%	0.5%
Worked from home	14.5%	13.0%
Other means	1.1%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bellingham	Sudden Valley
1-unit, detached	44.0%	90.0%
1-unit, attached	3.7%	3.3%
2 to 4 units	11.2%	2.9%
5 to 19 units	17.9%	3.3%
20 or more units	20.4%	0.4%
Mobile home & other	2.8%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Bellingham	Sudden Valley
Poverty rate	18.3%	5.5%
Average household size	2.15	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	19	32
Median year structure built	1985	1992