Birch Bay vs Sudden Valley

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

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

Birch Bay has the higher population (11,103 vs 6,963 in Sudden Valley). Sudden Valley has the higher median household income ($98,865 vs $77,120 in Birch Bay). Sudden Valley has the higher median home value ($450,500 vs $439,100 in Birch Bay).

Population, income & housing

	Birch Bay	Sudden Valley
Population	11,103	6,963
Median age	42.1 yrs	41.9 yrs
Median household income	$77,120	$98,865
Median home value	$439,100	$450,500
Median gross rent	$1,201	$1,930
Housing units	5,947	3,068
Homeownership rate	81.1%	92.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	30.9%	49.8%
Unemployment rate	4.8%	2.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Birch Bay	Sudden Valley
Population	9,323 → 11,103 (+19.1%)	8,072 → 6,963 (-13.7%)
Median household income	$62,413 → $77,120 (+23.6%)	$86,064 → $98,865 (+14.9%)
Median home value	$274,300 → $439,100 (+60.1%)	$314,300 → $450,500 (+43.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,115 → $1,201 (+7.7%)	$1,800 → $1,930 (+7.2%)

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

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)

	Birch Bay	Sudden Valley
Under 5	6.5%	4.2%
5 to 17	15.9%	15.5%
18 to 24	7.2%	3.1%
25 to 34	12.0%	17.4%
35 to 44	11.3%	14.2%
45 to 54	10.2%	11.7%
55 to 64	13.3%	12.4%
65 to 74	14.3%	13.5%
75 and over	9.3%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Birch Bay	Sudden Valley
White (non-Hispanic)	78.8%	77.0%
Black or African American	1.0%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.8%	0.0%
Asian	1.6%	1.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.4%
Some other race	0.2%	1.0%
Two or more races	9.1%	9.4%
Hispanic or Latino	7.7%	9.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Birch Bay	Sudden Valley
No high school diploma	6.6%	2.5%
High school graduate	21.1%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	41.4%	34.5%
Bachelor's degree	19.8%	30.7%
Graduate or professional degree	11.1%	19.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Birch Bay	Sudden Valley
Drove alone	80.7%	73.4%
Carpooled	8.6%	11.1%
Public transit	0.3%	1.0%
Walked	0.9%	0.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.5%
Worked from home	9.5%	13.0%
Other means	0.1%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Birch Bay	Sudden Valley
1-unit, detached	71.8%	90.0%
1-unit, attached	2.4%	3.3%
2 to 4 units	2.4%	2.9%
5 to 19 units	5.4%	3.3%
20 or more units	0.5%	0.4%
Mobile home & other	17.4%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Birch Bay	Sudden Valley
Poverty rate	8.6%	5.5%
Average household size	2.34	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	27	32
Median year structure built	1990	1992