Downtown Dashboard
September 2026 (August data)
DSA publishes a monthly dashboard examining dozens of key metrics that affect our urban core’s vitality and local economy. The data sets provide a comparison point to the same period in 2019. Additionally, the dashboard will feature notable stories that provide context regarding downtown’s health and progress.
Please credit the Downtown Seattle Association’s Downtown Dashboard for use of charts, data and images on this page.
Unique monthly visitors compared to 2019
Nearly 3.8 million unique visitors came downtown in August 2026. This represents 112% of the visitors seen in August 2019 and a 3-point increase from August 2025.
Note: Foot traffic only includes domestic visitors.
Average weekday worker foot traffic
In August, downtown’s worker foot traffic was 62% of August 2019’s daily average. August 2026 averaged nearly 150,000 daily workers, similar to the average number in the past several months.
Monthly hotel rooms sold compared to 2019
There were nearly 429,000 downtown hotel rooms sold in August 2026. This figure represents 106% of August 2019 demand and a 3% increase compared to August 2025.
Quarterly
In August, the number of occupied apartment units downtown remained around 62,000 units. This represents a 1% increase compared to Q3 2025 and a 21% increase compared to Q2 2019.
Of Note in Downtown
August 2026 was downtown Seattle’s most heavily visited month since July 2019. Visitor foot traffic was up 24% compared to August 2025.
According to Datafy, consumers spent $164,958,003 downtown in July. That figure is 5% above the previous month.
Through the first eight months of the year, the DSA/MID Clean Team has collected 731,054 gallons of trash from downtown sidewalks, curblines and alleys. By volume, that’s more than an Olympic-size swimming pool.
Coming Up in Downtown
Fall Arts Season
The fall arts season is in full swing at venues across downtown. Check out Serenade at PNB (Sept. 25–Oct. 4); A Chorus Line at The 5th Avenue Theatre (Sept. 15–27); and Hamlet at Union Arts Center (Sept. 19–Oct. 11).
Chinatown-International District Night Market
The Chinatown-ID Night Market is a free, all ages market celebrating community, food and culture. On Saturday, Sept. 26 dozens of local vendors will line South King Street and cultural performances will take place under the arch in Hing Hay Park.
Festa Italiana Seattle
All things Italian will take over Seattle Center Sept. 26–27 with the 39th annual Festa Italiana. Enjoy Italian cars, music, dance, food, cooking demonstrations and grape stomping at this free cultural experience.
Notes on Sources
Datafy measures consumer spending by analyzing a cross‑section of credit and debit card transactions and cell phone location data.
Downtown foot traffic data are provided by Placer.ai and are based on cell phone location data. Each person is counted once per day. International visitors are not included. Subsets of this data in the charts are as follows:
- Office worker presence is estimated based on visits by workers who were present between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays in downtown Seattle.*
- Hotel data are based on monthly reports from STR, provided by Visit Seattle.
- Apartment occupancy data are from CoStar. This is reported quarterly but the current quarter data are updated in real-time as new information is added to the database.
- Domestic visitors counts those who do not live or work downtown.
- Total foot traffic includes all visits to downtown by domestic visitors, residents and workers.
- Pike Place Market visitors includes domestic visitors who do not live or work at the Pike Place Market.
*Note that workers who have not visited their work site in the past 90 days are classified as “visitors” until they are regularly visiting their work site at least three times in a one-week period.