Did you know there are over 150 different community indicators on Grant County Trends - each updated throughout the year? But which ones, and when?
This issue of the Grant County Trends Blog lists the most recently updated indicators on the Grant County Trends website.
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Recent Updates
In PEOPLE:
The number of households with internet connections in Grant County is close to a maximum.
The U.S. Census estimated that in 2024, nearly 34,300 county households had some form of internet connection. That’s 95% of all households here.
The graph illustrates how rapid internet penetration has occurred in this large, rural county. A decade prior, the share of households with an internet connection was far lower, at 77%. Grant County in 2024 show no difference to the state of Washington nor the U.S. with regard to this key metric of 21st century infrastructure.
A sister Trends indicator reveals that the overwhelming component of internet connectivity here is broadband. By this measure, the county is also no different than the U.S. or Washington averages.
In AGRICULTURE:
The number of cattle, calves and dairy cows drops a bit in Grant County is but still high.
The county is a bovine center – whether for cow/calf, feedlot, or dairy operations. The total number of head surveyed in January of this year by the USDA amounted to 223,500. Only Yakima County holds more of these mainstays of animal husbandry in eastern Washington. The County’s share of the beef cattle inventory in the state was over 17%; its share of dairy cows, about 12%.
Peak inventory for the total number of beef and dairy animals came in 2024, when the USDA estimated 241,500 head here.
In ECONOMIC VITALITY:
New business applications continue to climb in the county.
Business applications do not always translate into new businesses, but the fit is likely pretty close. According to Census research, the vast number remain “non-employer” businesses, that is, without employees. The share that does convert into businesses with paid staff is less than 10%. Nonetheless, applications are the first stage for any business and an indication of entrepreneurial spirit within a county or region.
2024 represents an all-time high for this measure in Grant County, with 974 applications. Still, the year-over-year growth was less than the state average, as the graph makes clear. Note the huge jump in applications the year after the first full year of the pandemic. The count has stayed high since then.
The count of food & beverage manufacturers has gone up a bit recently.
A byword of economic development in agricultural-oriented communities is “value-added ag.” One can add value to the farm-gate price of produce or livestock in a variety of ways, but manufacturing processes cover most of them. This indicator tracks the number of food processors/manufacturers in the county.
As of 2024, there 40, an increase over the prior years of 4-7 companies, depending on the base year. Grant County has historically enjoyed a cluster of agricultural processors (think potatoes; recently oilseeds and wineries). In 2024, these operations claimed over 5% of the total county number employed. That percentage is about half of the share taken at the turn of the century. But processors haven’t gone away; rather the county economy has become more diversified.
Employment shares in the 5 largest employing sectors reveal growing diversification of the economy.
Tabulating head count shares of the largest sectors of an economy is one way of understanding the structure of the economy and, implicitly, its degree of diversification. For Grant County, the top five employing sectors have been, in order: agriculture, government (mostly school districts), manufacturing, retail trade and healthcare. Of these five, only healthcare has increased its share since pre-pandemic 2019, and then by only a little. This implies that growth of the number of employed has occurred in other sectors.
Quick calculations confirm this. First and foremost, this is due to increases in the sector professional, scientific & professional services, which has nearly tripled its head count, going from 607 to 1,739. (Think data centers.) This is followed by wholesale trade, with a gain of nearly 500. And in distant third place is construction, registering an increase of headcount of nearly 150.
As a consequence, the share of total employed by county employers by the top five sectors has declined from 72% to 68% since 2019.
To simplify the graph, click on the elements in the legend you would like to hide.
In EDUCATION:
For years, the state of Washington has administered summary assessments of learning, first the WASL, and in the past 15 years, the Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA). The latter has three components, taken at various grades levels: Math, Science, and measured in this indicator, English Language Arts (ELA). The assessment is scored into 4 categories, with the upper two “meeting standards” and “exceeding standards.” This indicator takes up the share of Grant County public 4th and 10th grade students who score in one of these two categories of the ELA.
For the most recent school year, about one third of county 4th graders met or exceeded standards. This is slightly below the share observed in school year 2018-2019. It is considerably below the Washington state average share of nearly one half (49%) in school year 2025-2025.
For 2024-2025, about 47% of county 10th graders met or exceed ELA standards for that grade. That is five percentage point lower than observed here in school year 2018-2019. It is also about 12 percentage points below that state average last year.
Clearly, the pandemic has left its mark on student learning.
In HEALTH:
The share of adults with a personal healthcare provider has recently declined in the county.
Getting one’s healthcare, especially primary care, from a known and regularly visited provider is a hallmark of good public health. Care delivered episodically, and often in crisis, at the emergency department is not. This indicator measures the share of adults who answer affirmatively to the question of having a steady personal provider.
In 2024, the share of adults answering yes to this query was 68%. That is ten percentage points lower than a decade prior. In the immediate aftermath of the pandemic (2021), the local share reached 87% but has since slumped. It is now considerably below the state average.
Good health depends on many factors, some of which are not medical, such as adequate housing and nutrition. But clinical care matters, and outside of charity care, one needs insurance to access healthcare providers. This indicator provides estimates of the total county population without health insurance.
As of 2024, nearly 16,300 county residents were estimated to be without health insurance, or about 16%. This is up by 3,000 from 2019 and by over 5,000 in 2016, the first full year of implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The county’s current rate is over twice as high as both the state and the national averages.
In HOUSING:
The Housing Affordability Index for first-time buyers is improving but a far cry from affordable.
The purchase of a home has typically been seen as the first big step in a family’s effort to build wealth. For families with children, a home is nearly always a better option than living in an apartment. Employers are also interested in ensuring that “workforce housing” exists for their staff. How do we measure the ability of first-time home buyers to make this step?
Enter the Housing Affordability Index (HAI), in this case for income-constrained households purchasing a lower price house. Specifically, this HAI is a ratio, with household income at 70% of the area median, on a quarterly basis, in the numerator, and the current quarter’s mortgage costs for a home priced at 85% of the area median in the denominator. As an index, the HAI is scaled so that 100 indicates that this household has exactly enough income to finance the mortgage, while limiting mortgage expenditures to be 25% of household income. A value above 100 implies the household has more than enough funds; a value below 100 implies not enough funds.
The latest reading of this HAI for Grant County 74. While this represents an improvement from the trough of 59 reached in 2023, it is distant from 100. That value was last reached in the final quarter of 2021. Note that pre-pandemic, index values were considerably over 100, implying good affordability for this buyer type.
In PUBLIC SAFETY:
Property crimes in the county are at historical lows.
In 2024, slightly less than 2,500 property crimes were reported authorities at the various jurisdictions in Grant County. Most of these incidents involved small stolen goods (larceny), followed by burglary, followed by car theft. This is nearly the same total is in 2019, the lowest year on record. The rate in 2024, at 23.4 incidents per 1,000 residents, is the lowest on record.
Peak property crime numbers in the county occurred in 2006, as the graph clearly indicators. Since then, a long decline has set in.
Note that the local rate is now slightly below the state rate, but above the national rate. So there is still room for improvement.
To simplify the graph, click on the elements in the legend you would like to hide.
updated 5.19.26
New Intern Features
Janay Bowen
Hometown:
San Jose, CA
Major:
Professional Accounting
Expected Graduation Date:
Spring 2027
Post-graduations plans:
Work at a local accounting firm to become a CPA!
After a few months of working on the Trends project, my favorite thing so far:
My favorite thing so far working on Trends projects is when I get into the flow state of work and I am understanding and creating spreadsheets that I know help the counties we work for.