Seattle, Washington, United States

Economy | Education

🇺🇸 Seattle is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America.

Seattle is one of the fastest-growing major cities in the United States with a 3.1% annual growth rate in recent years.

Seattle is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington. It is the northernmost major city in the United States, located about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canadian border. A major gateway for trade with East Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2021.

The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named "Seattle" in 1852, in honor of Chief Si'ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Today, Seattle has high populations of Native, Scandinavian, European American, Asian American and African American people, as well as a thriving LGBT community that ranks sixth in the United States by population.

Logging was Seattle's first major industry, but by the late 19th century, the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding centre as a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. Growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a centre for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed into a technology centre from the 1980s onwards with companies like Microsoft becoming established in the region; Microsoft founder Bill Gates is a Seattleite by birth. Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle in 1994, and major airline Alaska Airlines is based in SeaTac, Washington, serving Seattle's international airport, Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased the city's population by almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000. Seattle also has a significant musical history. Between 1918 and 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District to the Central District. The jazz scene nurtured the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix, as well as the origin of the bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Heart, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, and the alternative rock movement grunge.

Economy Seattle's economy is driven by a mix of older industrial companies and "new economy" internet and technology companies, as well as service, design, and clean technology companies. The city's gross metropolitan product (GMP) was $231 billion in 2010, making it the 11th largest metropolitan economy in the United States. The Port of Seattle, which also operates Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, is a major gateway for trade with Asia and cruises to Alaska. It also is the 8th largest port in the United States when measured by container capacity. Its maritime cargo operations merged with the Port of Tacoma in 2015 to form the Northwest Seaport Alliance. Although it was affected by the Great Recession, Seattle has retained a comparatively strong economy, and is noted for start-up businesses, especially in green building and clean technologies. In February 2010, the city government committed Seattle to become North America's first "climate neutral" city, with a goal of reaching zero net per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Large companies continue to dominate the business landscape. Seven companies on Fortune 500's 2022 list of the United States' largest companies (based on total revenue) are headquartered in Seattle: Internet retailer Amazon (#2), coffee chain Starbucks (#120), freight forwarder Expeditors International of Washington (#225), department store Nordstrom (#245), forest products company Weyerhaeuser (#354), online travel company Expedia Group (#404) and real-estate tech company Zillow (#424) . Other Fortune 500 companies commonly associated with Seattle are based in nearby Puget Sound cities. Warehouse club chain Costco (#11), the largest retail company in Washington, is based in Issaquah. Microsoft (#14) is located in Redmond. Furthermore, Bellevue is home to truck manufacturer Paccar (#151). Other major companies headquartered in the area include Nintendo of America in Redmond, T-Mobile US in Bellevue, and Providence Health & Services (the state's largest health care system and fifth largest employer) in Renton. The city has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Tully's. There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafés.

Before moving its headquarters to Chicago and then ultimately Arlington, Virginia, aerospace manufacturer Boeing (#60) was the largest company based in Seattle. Its largest division, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is still headquartered within the Puget Sound region. The company also has large aircraft manufacturing plants in Everett and Renton; it remains the largest private employer in the Seattle metropolitan area. In 2006 former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced a desire to spark a new economic boom driven by the biotechnology industry. Major redevelopment of the South Lake Union neighborhood is underway in an effort to attract new and established biotech companies to the city, joining biotech companies Corixa (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), Immunex (now part of Amgen), Trubion, and ZymoGenetics. Vulcan Inc., the holding company of billionaire Paul Allen, is behind most of the development projects in the region. While some see the new development as an economic boon, others have criticized Nickels and the Seattle City Council for pandering to Allen's interests at taxpayers' expense. In 2005, Forbes ranked Seattle as the most expensive American city for buying a house based on the local income levels. Owing largely to the rapidly increasing cost of living, Seattle and Washington State have some of the highest minimum wages in the country, at $15 per hour for smaller businesses and $16 for the city's largest employers.

Operating a hub at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, Alaska Airlines maintains its headquarters in the city of SeaTac, next to the airport. Seattle is a hub for global health with the headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH (global health organization), Infectious Disease Research Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. In 2015, the Washington Global Health Alliance counted 168 global health organizations in Washington state. Many are headquartered in Seattle.

Education Seattle is home to the University of Washington, as well as the institution's professional and continuing education unit, the University of Washington Educational Outreach. The 2017 U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Washington at No. 11 in the world. The UW receives more federal research and development funding than any public institution. Over the last 10 years, it has also produced more Peace Corps volunteers than any other U.S. university. Seattle also has a number of smaller private universities including Seattle University and Seattle Pacific University, the former a Jesuit Catholic institution, the latter a Free Methodist institution. The Seattle Colleges District operates three colleges: North Seattle College, Seattle Central College, and South Seattle College. Universities aimed at the working adult are the City University and Antioch University. Seminaries include Western Seminary and a number of arts colleges, such as Cornish College of the Arts, Pratt Fine Arts Center. In 2001, Time magazine selected Seattle Central Community College as community college of the year, saying that the school "pushes diverse students to work together in small teams".

Seattle, Washington, United States 
<b>Seattle, Washington, United States</b>
Image: Adobe Stock kalafoto #107920578

Seattle is rated Beta by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) which evaluates and ranks the relationships between world cities in the context of globalisation. Beta level cities are cities that link moderate economic regions to the world economy.

Seattle is ranked #24 and rated C+ by the Global Urban Competitiveness Report (GUCR) which evaluates and ranks world cities in the context of economic competitiveness. C+ cities are strong international gateway cities. Seattle was ranked #43 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. Seattle has a population of over 753,675 people. Seattle also forms part of the wider Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area which has a population of over 3,979,845 people. Seattle is the #4 hipster city in the world, with a hipster score of 7.029 according to the Hipster Index which evaluates and ranks the major cities of the world according to the number of vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores. Seattle is ranked #12 for startups with a score of 24.329.

To set up a UBI Lab for Seattle see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Seattle is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Literature see: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Seattle has links with:

🇨🇳 Banan, China 🇮🇱 Beersheba, Israel 🇳🇴 Bergen, Norway 🇵🇭 Cebu City, Philippines 🇵🇪 Chimbote, Perú 🇨🇳 Chongqing, China 🇳🇿 Christchurch, New Zealand 🇰🇷 Daejeon, South Korea 🇰🇷 Daejon, South Korea 🇮🇪 Galway, Ireland 🇵🇱 Gdynia, Poland 🇻🇳 Haiphong, Vietnam 🇹🇼 Kaohsiung, Taiwan 🇯🇵 Kesennuma, Japan 🇯🇵 Kōbe, Japan 🇨🇲 Limbé, Cameroon 🇲🇽 Mazatlán, Mexico 🇰🇪 Mombasa, Kenya 🇫🇷 Nantes, France 🇭🇺 Pécs, Hungary 🇮🇹 Perugia, Italy 🇮🇸 Reykjavík, Iceland 🇰🇭 Sihanoukville, Cambodia 🇮🇩 Surabaya, Indonesia 🇺🇿 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | GaWC | GUCR | Hipster Index | Nomad | StartupBlink

Antipodal to Seattle is: 57.683,-47.6

Locations Near: Seattle -122.317,47.6

🇺🇸 Bellevue -122.201,47.612 d: 8.8  

🇺🇸 Kirkland -122.183,47.683 d: 13.7  

🇺🇸 Renton -122.203,47.481 d: 15.8  

🇺🇸 Redmond -122.117,47.667 d: 16.7  

🇺🇸 Kent -122.237,47.381 d: 25.1  

🇺🇸 Federal Way -122.333,47.3 d: 33.4  

🇺🇸 Auburn -122.2,47.3 d: 34.5  

🇺🇸 Bremerton -122.65,47.567 d: 25.2  

🇺🇸 Port Orchard -122.642,47.476 d: 28  

🇺🇸 Tacoma -122.442,47.253 d: 39.7  

Antipodal to: Seattle 57.683,-47.6

🇫🇷 Saint-Pierre 55.478,-21.342 d: 17088.6  

🇫🇷 Saint-Benoît 55.713,-21.034 d: 17055.8  

🇫🇷 Saint-Paul 55.27,-21.01 d: 17050.4  

🇫🇷 Saint-Paul 55.279,-21 d: 17049.4  

🇫🇷 Saint-Denis 55.457,-20.867 d: 17035.8  

🇲🇺 Mahébourg 57.7,-20.407 d: 16991.4  

🇲🇺 Curepipe 57.517,-20.317 d: 16981.3  

🇲🇺 Vacoas-Phoenix 57.493,-20.3 d: 16979.4  

🇲🇺 Quatre Bornes 57.479,-20.266 d: 16975.6  

🇲🇺 Beau Bassin-Rose Hill 57.471,-20.235 d: 16972.1  

Bing Map

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