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Q: What is the Sound Transit District?

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Occasionally, we get asked about the Sound Transit District--how big is it, how many people call it home and what cities are included.

To start, the Sound Transit District is big, bigger than Rhode Island. It’s 1,080-square miles to be exact, extending from Everett in the north, Issaquah and Sammamish in the east and DuPont in the south. It is home to 53 cities in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, with a population of roughly 2.8 million people, or about 40 percent of the entire state’s population.

Put another way, the Sound Transit District has about the same population as the states of Utah, Kansas and Nevada.

The youngest city in the district is Sammamish, incorporated in 1999, and the oldest is the Town of Steilacoom, which incorporated in 1854—35 years before Washington even became a state.

Besides including 40 percent of the state’s population, the district has more than 70 percent of the state’s economic activity and 97 percent of its congestion.

The Sound Transit District became official when voters in 1996 approved the plan to fund Sound Transit’s high-capacity transit system of trains and buses. You can learn more about the district here.

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