SPOKANE, Wash. -- The City of Spokane says our population is expected to grow by 20,000 people in the next 20 years.
The latest numbers from the US Census Bureau shows Spokane's population at nearly 216,000. Cities comparable to Spokane are Madison, Wisconsin and Buffalo, New York, both in the mid to low 200,000 population size.
In 1996, Spokane's population was 187,473, Madison's was 208,157 and Buffalo's was about 309,035. Since that time, all three cities had their dips and climbs in population size. In the last 20 years, Madison's population increased by over 44,000, Spokane by 28,000 but Buffalo ended up losing about 52,000.
This would not be the first time Spokane population increase by 20,000 in 20 years. What does that 20,000 look like? Well it will be like slowly moving Moses Lake into Spokane over 20 years.
KREM 2 looked back another 20 years from 1976 to 1996. Spokane's population went up about 170,000 people. Seeing our city increase by 20,000 people by 2037 should be nothing new.