Did you know there are over 170 different community indicators on Skagit County Trends - each updated throughout the year? But which ones, and when?
This issue of the Skagit County Trends blog lists some of the most recently updated indicators on the Skagit County Trends website.
This page will be updated and email alerts sent on a quarterly basis. Don't miss an update - subscribe today!
Recent Updates
In PEOPLE:
The youngest and oldest of Skagit County’s age groups loom relatively large.
As of last year, nearly 25% of the county’s population fell into the 65+ category. This represents a much larger share than for older adults statewide, currently at about 18%. As the indicator graph shows, Skagit County has typically had a larger share of older adults than the state as whole. But the gap has grown over the years.
The other local age group with a larger share than the state is youth (0-17 years). In 2025, its share was 23% vs. 21% for the state.
Conversely, the size of the shares of the two other age groups, 18-34 and 35-65 years, are smaller here than statewide. That is especially true for young adults, as they claim 17% of the population here vs. 24% in all 39 counties. This gap, too, has grown over the years.
To simplify the graph, click off the items in the legend you want to hide.
In ECONOMIC VITALITY:
Taxable retail sales in Skagit County reached a new peak in 2025.
Taxable retail sales offer a window into the strength of most consumer spending on goods in our state. They also reflect the pulse of construction, as this sector is covered by the tax as well. Certain consumer goods are not taxed, such as prescription drugs and most food; on the other hand, some, but not all, consumer services are subject to the tax. The revenue from the tax is critical for both the state and local governments.
Last year set a record for taxable retail sales in the county, at $4.46 billion. This represented a 3.1% increase over 2024, tying the rate of increase statewide. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, taxable retail sales in the county have moved at an identical pace to those of the state. And the pandemic greatly boosted taxable retail sales, steepening the trend line over the pre-pandemic years.
The rising number of food & accommodations businesses undoubtedly reflects rising visitor numbers.
One look at measuring visitor activity consists of counting the number of food and accommodations businesses. While the former industry caters to locals, it is greatly aided by robust visitor traffic. Accommodation businesses cater nearly exclusively to visitors. As customer counts go up, so will the number of businesses known generally as hospitality firms.
By this measure, visitor activity in the county has grown significantly over the past few years. As of last year, 375 of these businesses called Skagit County home. This total represents a substantial increase since pandemic year 2020, when the count was 333.
As the graph reveals, the share of hospitality firms of all firms in the county is currently about 10%. Historically, Skagit County’s hospitality businesses have been more prevalent here than statewide or in the nation.
Net jobs created in Skagit County dipped substantially in 2025.
A primary goal of local economic development efforts is job creation. Assuming a growing population, that growth requires new jobs. Job creation can arrive from local companies expanding or from firms relocating. Data are not available to capture only the number of new jobs; rather, they come (from the rolls of the Unemployment Insurance fund) mixed with job losses in a particular industry, sector, or county. Consequently, the measure addresses net jobs created, or gains minus losses.
Last year was the weakest year since the start of the pandemic for this important indicator of local economic health. A mere 170 net new jobs were registered in the county. In contrast, the year before, 2024, brought the highest number of net new jobs since 2006, at 1,577 jobs.
Generally, job creation in Skagit County has advanced more slowly than that of the state overall. For 2025, however, the growth rates in both jurisdictions were the same.
Residential building permitted units in Skagit County are up year-to-date, but 2025 provides a weak comparison.
Residential construction matters in several ways to a local economy. Housing obviously allows new residents to find a suitable dwelling. Typically, the construction industry generally is one of the top employing sectors in the economy. And given the tax structure of Washington state, taxes from construction activities typically form a large component of taxable retail sales, generally the largest source of local (and state) government revenue.
Permits are not identical to construction activities, although most permits lead to building. They offer the advantage of being forward-looking, enabling builders and public officials to anticipate activities for 3-12 months in the future.
For the first half of 2026, the number of residential permits stood at 178, an increase of 17 over 2025. This count, however, of permitted units lies far below that of the first half of 2024, when the tally was 326. For the year 2025, permitted units in the county came in nearly 200 lower than in 2024. If the current trend continues, the total number of permitted units this year will surpass that of 2025 but will still reflect a sharp decline from 2024.
To simplify the graph, click off the items in the legend you want to hide.
In EDUCATION:
The share of students with regular attendance in Skagit County public schools has not yet recovered from the pandemic.
Regular attendance is a tried-and-true predictor of graduating from high school. The state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) defines regular attendance as two or fewer excused absences per month, on average, over the course of a school year.
As the graph makes very clear, the count and share of “absent” students in Skagit County’s public schools have not recovered from the pandemic. In the most recent school year, 2025-26, the number of public K-12 students with regular attendance was about 13,850. In 2019-2020, the count was much higher, at approximately 17,550. Given the different sizes of the county K-12 population in those two years, a rate, or share of the students with regular attendance of all public students, enables a better comparison. The current rate is 75%. Pre-pandemic, it was 86%.
Generally, regular attendance rates in the county’s K-12 have lagged those of the state average, although last year was an exception.
Public high school 5-year graduation rates in the county are now on a par with the state.
One’s formal education or training does not stop at high school. For today’s labor market, additional time is needed in a classroom or apprenticeship to land jobs or the path to these jobs that will offer a livable wage. This indicator tracks the share of graduating high school seniors who are enrolled in either a two- or four-year, non-profit educational institution within one year of graduation. The school can be anywhere in the country. Entrance into the trades, however, is not tracked.
The pandemic ushered in a significant decline in the share of seniors pursuing higher education and the class of 2025 is following the trend of the preceding classes since 2020. A total of 43% of county public school graduates were enrolled, representing the lowest percentage to date. In 2019, the same measure yielded 57%. The overall share in the county has been consistently lower than the state average. Most of the recent decline is due to the fraction of graduating seniors enrolled in a four-year institution.
In ENVIRONMENT:
Good air quality days in Skagit County are more numerous than in neighboring counties.
The Environment Protection Agency categorizes overall air quality into groups: good, moderate, unhealthy for special groups and unhealthy. This is based on the scores of the Air Quality Index (up to 500 for the unhealthiest score); the Index, in turn, is based on several components, such as particulate matter and ozone levels.
In 2025, the number of good air quality days in Skagit County hit 354, very close to the record set the prior year. A few moderate days made up the balance. The number of good days here was much higher than five years prior, when the number stood at 296. Air quality here has also handily beat the adjacent counties in recent years. For 2025, Snohomish County registered 248 good days, while Whatcom County tallied 342.
To simplify the graph, click off the items in the legend you want to hide.
In HEALTH:
Deaths (and disease incidence) are still dominated by cancer and heart disease in Skagit County.
The reasons given for death, taken in the aggregate, can reveal quite a bit about the dynamics of population health of a county. Those insights can then lead to campaigns promoting awareness, early detection, and treatment by clinicians or public health authorities.
The latest data from the Washington Department of Public Health show Skagit County’s largest cause was cancer, with a share of 23%. That was approximately the size of its share a decade prior. The next largest cause, heart disease, revealed a share of 19%. This, too, was the same size 10 years ago.
Rounding out the top five reasons were Alzheimer’s (5%), stroke (4%) and covid-19 (1%). The current shares of the first two are slightly lower than a decade ago, and of course, covid-19 was not a factor then. As the graph reveals, the total number of deaths accounted for by the top five (or 4) causes has declined over the past two decades.
To simplify the graph, click off the items in the legend you want to hide.
Primary care physicians have slightly declined in Skagit County. student count has recently plunged.
Primary care delivery has been singled out as the most cost-effective way of increasing population health and therefore reducing societal healthcare costs. While nursing staff, in particular nurse practitioners, are a key part of primary care, this Trends indicator tracks primary care through the number of physicians with that general specialty. This includes physicians practicing family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics and OB/GYN.
In 2025, these specialties totaled 107 in the county, a number that has been largely the same since 2020. This translates into about 8 primary care physicians per 10,000 residents, or 0.8 per 1,000 residents. Although this rate has been the same for several years, it has dropped from 10 or 15 years ago. The current primary care physician/population staffing ratio is much the same as the state average.
updated 10.22.26
The full list of Skagit County Trends can be found here.