73.5% of Washington Lives Within 100 Miles of Olympia. Mapped.

By SimpleMapLab·Published 13 May 2026·Rank #21 of 50 states·↑ All 50 states

73.5% of Washington’s population — about 5.74 M of 7.82 M residents — lives within 100 miles of Olympia. The other 26.5% — including Spokane — sits beyond the circle.

A 100-mile geodesic radius around the Olympia, WA state capitol overlaid on Washington. 73.5% of Washington's population lives inside the dashed ring.

73.5%

of Washington’s population within 100 miles of Olympia

5.74 M

residents inside the radius (of 7.82 M statewide)

63 mi

from Olympia to Washington’s population centroid

#21

of 50 states ranked by capital-to-population centrality

Open this radius in the map → /tools/map-radius-tool · Olympia, WA · 100 mi
The link opens the SimpleMapLab Map Radius Tool with the 100-mile circle already drawn around the Olympia capitol. Change the radius to 50, 250, or any value to compare different framings.

Why this happened

Washington's capital is centrally located but not perfectly placed. Olympia's 100-mile circle captures roughly two-thirds to four-fifths of the state's residents — including Seattle (the largest city inside, ~1.01 million). The notable exception: Spokane, sitting 259 miles from the capital. The capital itself sits 63 miles from Washington's population centroid — a moderate but not extreme offset.

The biggest cities inside the 100-mile radius

The top 5 most-populous places (by aggregated ZIP code population) sitting inside the 100-mile circle around Olympia. Cities are listed by total population captured by ZIP centroids in the dataset.

#	City	Population in radius
1	Seattle	1,011,226
2	Tacoma	357,664
3	Vancouver	328,088
4	Olympia	201,901
5	Everett	174,300

The largest city outside the radius

Washington’s most-populous city outside the 100-mile circle is Spokane, sitting 259 miles from Olympia. The aggregated population of Spokane’s ZIP codes alone — 391,629 residents — illustrates the gap between Washington’s political seat and its population centre.

How Washington compares

The states ranked closest to Washington on this metric. Click any to compare the radius breakdown directly.

#20 South Carolina

Columbia · 73.7% pop. captured

#22 Louisiana

Baton Rouge · 73.2% pop. captured

#19 Arizona

Phoenix · 74.1% pop. captured

#23 Kentucky

Frankfort · 70.1% pop. captured

#18 Oregon

Salem · 77.5% pop. captured

Draw it yourself

Open the 100-mile circle around Olympia →

The Map Radius Tool lets you change the radius (try 50 mi for an urban-suburban question or 250 mi for “a day’s drive”), drag the centre to compare Olympia’s reach with that of Seattle, or add a second circle for a side-by-side comparison.

Methodology (brief)

We took the lat/lng of the Washington state capitol building (47.0379°, -122.9007°) and drew a 100-mile geodesic radius. For every ZIP code in Washington, we tested whether the ZIP centroid falls inside; if so, its population counts. We then divide by Washington’s total population to produce the percentage. The full methodology for all 50 states is on the hub page.

Suggested citation: SimpleMapLab (2026). 100 Miles Around Olympia: How Much of Washington Is Inside? Part of the State Capital Radius study. Retrieved from https://www.simplemaplab.com/studies/state-capital-radius/washington. Licensed under CC-BY 4.0.