Seattle

Seattle (/siˈætəl/see-AT-əl) is a seaport city on the west coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 730,000 residents as of 2018, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. According to U.S. Census data released in 2018, the Seattle metropolitan area’s population stands at 3.87 million, and ranks as the 15th largest in the United States. In July 2013, it was the fastest-growing major city in the United States and remained in the Top 5 in May 2015 with an annual growth rate of 2.1%. In July 2016, Seattle was again the fastest-growing major U.S. city, with a 3.1% annual growth rate. Seattle is the northernmost large city in the contiguous United States.

Large companies are headquartered in Seattle: Internet retailer Amazon.com (#12), coffee chain Starbucks (#131), department store Nordstrom (#188), freight forwarder Expeditors International of Washington (#429), forest products company Weyerhaeuser (#341),  Warehouse club chain Costco (#16), Microsoft (#28), truck manufacturer Paccar (#164), Nintendo of America, T-Mobile US, Expedia Inc., Providence Health & Services , coffee companies Seattle’s Best Coffee, and Tully’s.

Before moving its headquarters to Chicago, aerospace manufacturer Boeing (#24) was the largest company based in Seattle.