Population

Most of the population of the Pacific Northwest is concentrated in the Portland–Seattle–Vancouver corridor. This area is sometimes seen as a megacity (also known as a conurbation, an agglomeration, or a megalopolis). This "megacity" stretches along Interstate 5 in the states of Oregon and Washington and Hwy 99 in the province of British Columbia. As of 2004, the combined populations of the Lower Mainland region (which includes Greater Vancouver), the Seattle metropolitan area and the Portland metropolitan area totaled around eight million people. However, beyond the megacity with few exceptions, the PNW region is characterized by a relatively low density population distribution. Some other regions of greater population density outside this corridor include the Okanagan Valley in the British Columbia interior (about 350,000 people centered around the city of Kelowna, which has close to 200,000 people) and the greater Spokane area (close to half a million). Large geographical areas may only have one mid-sized to small sized city as a regional center (often a county seat) with smaller cities and towns scattered around. Vast areas of the region may have little or no population at all, largely due to the presence of extensive mountains and forests, and plateaus containing both extensive farm and range lands, much of which is protected from development in large parks and preserves, or by zoning use regulation related to traditional land use. For example, all cities within the portion of California included in the Pacific Northwest have populations less than 100,000, with that portion of the state containing millions of acres of national forests and parks.

List of largest cities by population in the Pacific Northwest

City	State/Province	Population	Metropolitan Area
Seattle	Washington	668,342[37]	3,905,026[38]
Portland	Oregon	632,309[38]	2,389,228[38]
Vancouver	British Columbia	631,486 [39]	2,463,431[39]
Surrey	British Columbia	517,887 [40]	[n 1]
Burnaby	British Columbia	223,218[41]	[n 1]
Boise	Idaho	214,237[42]	616,561[38]
Spokane	Washington	210,721[37]	471,221[43]
Tacoma	Washington	198,397[37]	[n 2]
Richmond	British Columbia	190,473[44]	[n 1]
Vancouver	Washington	161,791[37]	[n 3]
Eugene	Oregon	156,185[45]	351,715[38]
Salem	Oregon	154,637[45]	390,738[38]
Bellevue	Washington	136,420[37]	[n 2]
Abbotsford	British Columbia	133,497[46]	170,191[46]
Coquitlam	British Columbia	126,456[47]	[n 1]
Kent	Washington	125,560[37]	[n 2]
Kelowna	British Columbia	117,312[48]	179,839[48]
Saanich	British Columbia	109,752[49]	[n 4]
Gresham	Oregon	105,594[45]	[n 3]
Langley (Township)	British Columbia	104,177[50]	[n 1]
Everett	Washington	103,019[37]	[n 2]
Delta	British Columbia	99,863[51]	[n 1]
Renton	Washington	95,448[37]	[n 2]
Hillsboro	Oregon	91,611[45]	[n 3]
Yakima	Washington	91,067[52]	243,231[52]
Beaverton	Oregon	89,803[45]	[n 3]
Kamloops	British Columbia	85,678[53]	98,754[54]
North Vancouver (District)	British Columbia	84,412[55]	[n 1]
Nanaimo	British Columbia	83,810[56]	98,021[57]
Nampa	Idaho	81,557[42]	[n 5]
Bellingham	Washington	80,885[37]	201,140[58]
Victoria	British Columbia	80,017[53]	344,615[59]
Chilliwack	British Columbia	77,936[51]	92,308[59]
Bend	Oregon	76,639[60]	170,705
Maple Ridge	British Columbia	76,052[61]	[n 1]
Kennewick	Washington	76,244	268,200
Meridian	Idaho	75,092[62]	[n 5]
Medford	Oregon	74,907[60]	207,010