Seattle is number one with millennials in the US

Nielsen, a company name that is most popularly known for producing ratings for television and radio across the United States are experts with statistics breaking down populations by demographics. 

In Nielsen's research, they've discovered some interesting things about Seattle. One of those things is that the largest age demographic represented in Seattle are millennials. 

According to seattletimes.com,
‘Seattle was one of the “it” cities for millennials during the 2010s, drawing them in by the tens of thousands each year. The influx of then-20-somethings helped make Seattle the fastest-growing big U.S. city of the previous decade.
By and large, these millennials — now in their 30s and early 40s — have stuck around, and are the dominant generational group in the Seattle area.’ 

How many Millennials? 

Millennials, now in the year 2025 are ages 30 to 44 and there are more of them than any other general age demographic in Seattle. More than 1,400,000 millennials are in Seattle (Approximately 32% of the total population) based on Nielsen research and surveys. The data from those surveys comes from September 2024 to July 2025. 

Looking at a list of 30 large “metros” across the country Nielsen research showed six other metros that were just behind Seattle for the number of Millennials. Riverside-San Bernardino, Chicago, Portland, Houston and Austin Texas. If you look at the other end of that list, you'll see the fewest number of millennials living in metro cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh. 

Back to Seattle,  

The next largest demographic listed in the Seattle metro area is Gen X (Ages 45 to 59.) with just over 1,000,000 residents. Gen Z, (18 to 24) comes in at number 3 in Seattle with approximately 755,000 residents. The smallest age demographic represented in the study would be known as the “Silent Generation”, older baby boomers, 70 and older at 595,000 residents. That's still a lot of people.  

So, of that list of 30 metros, which Metro has the largest number of Gen Z? Between 2010 and 2019, most of Gen X wanted to be in Seattle. Now in 2024 to 2025. Gen Z wants to be in San Antonio, TX. (23%). 

Are you curious about Wenatchee? 

Based on the census report that I have access to it looks like Millennials are dominant here as well, although there's a very good representation for Gen X. Baby boomers in the Wenatchee metro only represent 13% of the total population. So, in general it seems like Millennials are on the rise, but Gen X is not far behind.