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:
This ratio is calculated as the number of registered voters over the number of adults. It makes no distinction of citizen status, as these data are not available. In 2024, the county share of adults (18+) registered to vote was 67%. This marks an improvement from a decade ago, when it stood at 56%. The state average rate in 2024, however, was 80%.
Undoubtedly, a large part of the gap between the county and the state average lies in the disproportionate share of county residents who are not citizens. The Trends indicator on the foreign-born show nearly 13% of the total county population were not residents in 2023. In the state, the share was 8% that year.
In ECONOMIC VITALITY:
Annual taxable retail sales dipped in 2024.
This measure gives an idea of the strength of the consumer economy and construction, as the latter is taxed in Washington state. Most, but not all, consumer goods are taxed; exceptions include most groceries and prescription drugs.
In 2024, taxable retail sales were $3.57 billion in Grant County. While the second-highest level in history, 2024 nonetheless brought lower sales than in 2023, when they hit $3.82 billion. While higher than state growth in the prior two years, the County rate of growth in 2024 was -6.6%, far below the state rate of 1.2%.
The city of Moses Lake showed a similar experience in 2024: the second-highest total on record but below the prior year. Its decrease from 2023, however, was lower, at -3.0%.
County quarterly residential business permits have held steady in 2025.
Residential building activity typically constitutes a strong leg of most local economies. Permits give advanced notice of building, and data are available on a quarterly basis from the U.S. Census.
For the first half of this year, the number of permits in the county was 266. This is nearly the same as the first half of 2024. The count in both years was higher than in 2023 but far below the total observed in 2022 – highest on record.
On a per capita basis, permits here year-to-date have been higher than the state average.
In EDUCATION:
The county public high school, on-time graduation rate jumped in 2024.
The on-time high school graduation rate tracks the percentage of 9th graders who graduate four years later, net of transfers to the cohort. It has become one of the key measures of student achievement and of school district success.
For the graduating class in 2024, the rate for all the public-school districts in Grant County was 86%. That ties 2020 as the highest year on record. It is also 10 percentage points higher than the recent trough of 2021, and for the first time, higher than the state average.
The recent rates for the Moses Lake School district have been close to the all-county average, but the district’s class of ’24 was four percentage points lower, at 82%.
The SBA, taken by public school students every spring, has become a signature indicator of subject area learning. It aligns with national learning standards over three subject areas: English, science and math. The results are divided into quartiles, and those students’ scores in the upper half indicate that they are “meeting standard.”
For the most recent available school year, the county average for 4th graders meeting standard in the math SBA was 34%; for 10th graders, 19%. These are higher (especially for 4th graders) shares than in the first two years of the pandemic. However, they lie considerably below pre-pandemic results for county students and continue to lag the Washington average shares by wide margins.
To simplify the graph, click on those elements in the legend you would like to hide.
In ENVIRONMENT AND LAND USE:
City of Moses Lake water per capita water consumption continues to decline.
In an era of increasing awareness of the preciousness of water – for commerce and private use – this indicator sheds light on efforts to achieve greater water use efficiency. To facilitate comparisons, total water use is put into a per capita basis.
For 2024, apparent per capita consumption in Moses Lake was 260 gallons per day. This is nearly 100 gallons lower than per capita per day consumption in the city a decade ago. The city profile remains a bit higher than that of the city of Walla Walla, but the gap has closed.
The line indicates summer rainfall. The correlation, however, between per capita consumption and rainfall in Moses Lake is weak over the period covered.
In HEALTH:
The total share of deaths by the top leading causes continues to decline.
How we die gives a good idea of chronic diseases impacting the population. This indicator considers the top five causes of deaths in the county. Compared to over decades ago, the shares claimed by cancer, heart disease and stroke have declined. In contrast, the share due to Alzheimer’s has risen. And new from 2020 on is the appearance of covid-19; that share has substantially declined.
The graph portrays a declining total share of these causes, indicating that other causes have risen. The current mix of causes in the county does not differ too much from the Washington average shares.
To simplify the graph, click on those elements in the legend you would like to hide.
The share of avoidable hospital admissions remains stable.
This classic public health measure examines the strength of the primary care delivery system in a community or region. It assumes that certain admissions to a hospital could have been avoided had the patient enjoyed adequate primary care. These admissions include asthma, uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension, immunization-preventable pneumonia and influenza. Treatment in an ambulatory setting is more timely and certainly less costly.
The most recent share of these admissions in Grant County is hardly different than seven years prior. The 2023 share was 4.9%; the 2016 share 4.8%. Note that the Grant County share has been below the state average share for nearly all years.
In HOUSING:
The County’s median home resale price - has it plateaued?
A home is usually the largest purchase in the lifetime of a family. So price matters. Here, the price is evaluated at the median for each quarter and includes only “re-sale” homes.
The most recent quarter, ending in July of this year, showed the median resale price in the county to be about $368,000. That’s up from $351,000 a year ago and $331,000 two years ago. It appears, then, that home price increases have not stopped in the county, although the pace of increase is below where it was in the early stages of the pandemic.
In RECREATION AND TOURISM:
A bedrock notion of a successful society or community is a guarantee of personal safety. A resident should expect to be free of fear of crimes against one’s person. Consequently, violent crime rates are typically in the mix of evaluating the desirability of a community. Following the FBI definition, violent crimes in this indicator are: aggravated assaults, robberies, rapes and murders.
The total in 2023 in Grant County was 276, with the vast majority consisting of aggravated assaults. The rate, at 2.7 per 1,000 residents, was higher than in 2018 (2.2) but considerably lower than at the turn of the century (3.6). In the past few years, the violent crime in the county has been above the U.S. rate but below the state rate.
updated 10.15.25
New Intern Features
Mason Moore
Hometown:
Wenatchee, Washington
Major:
Information Systems & Business Analytics, Finance
Expected Graduation Date:
Fall 2025
Post-graduations plans:
Attend graduate school and get a good job!
After a few months of working on the Trends project, my favorite thing so far:
I really enjoy the process of troubleshooting and working through the puzzles that come with data analysis, no two indicators are ever the same, and that keeps things interesting and engaging. I’ve also really appreciated the opportunity to work with such a thoughtful and collaborative team. The people I get to work with make the experience even more rewarding.
Matthew Sandell
Hometown:
Bremerton, WA
Major:
Double-majoring in Economics and Data Analytics
Post-graduation plans:
Get a job involved with economic development and/or public policy, either local or international.
After a few months of working on the Trends project, my favorite thing so far:
There are so many different puzzles to solve. My favorite part of the Trends project is rebuilding or creating new datasets. Often, we have to make judgement calls on what data is important and how to present that data. Fundamentally, we're here to tell a story, and I love finding the most efficient way to achieve that through thoughtful and creative data organization.