2024 At a Glance
Downtown Seattle’s revitalization showed continued progress in 2024 as more office workers made their way back downtown, nearly 90 new businesses opened their doors and local visitors began returning to the center city. The latter part of 2024 also brought an improvement to street disorder that has long plagued Third Avenue around Pike and Pine, through a DSA-city of Seattle partnership known as the Downtown Activation Team. According to city data, downtown has seen significant improvement in that area, including a nearly 30% drop in incidents of violent crime; fewer emergency calls; and fewer medical responses.
Local Visitors
After several years of decline that started prior to the pandemic, local visitors are coming back to downtown. The redeveloped Waterfront Park, the Overlook Walk, connecting Pike Place Market to the waterfront, and Seattle Aquarium’s new Ocean Pavilion are clear draws. Locals are also coming to enjoy downtown’s renowned arts and cultural venues, concerts and professional sports as well as Pike Place Market and Seattle Center.
- More than 1.1 million unique local visitors came downtown in 2024 — a greater number than seen in 2019.
- The number of unique local visitors to downtown in 2024 was nearly 20% more than the number visiting in 2023.
- In 2024, total local visitor foot traffic downtown (i.e., the number of visits by locals) was the highest since 2019.
Source: Placer.ai
Source: Placer.ai
- Visitors from out of town (those living 150-plus miles from downtown) frequented the center city at the highest rates in July and August 2024.
- Local visitors (those living within 10 miles of downtown) visited the most in October 2024, likely drawn by new attractions. In fact, more local visitors came downtown that month than during any month since March 2020.
- In 2024, downtown saw record levels of local visitors; however, the frequency of their visits was only 81% of the total in 2019. In short, while more locals are coming back, they are doing so less frequently than they did pre-pandemic.
Top 5 Busiest Days for Locals Downtown in 2024
Big events and attractions draw crowds
Bite of Seattle at Seattle Center. Seattle Mariners vs. the Houston Astros at T-Mobile Park. Capitol Hill Block Party. Seattle Sounders vs. Los Angeles FC at Lumen Field.
The Apple Cup at Lumen Field. Seattle Mariners vs. the Texas Rangers at T-Mobile Park.
Seattle Pride Parade downtown. Seattle Center PrideFest.
The Seattle Kraken vs. the Calgary Flames at Climate Pledge Arena. Recent opening of the Overlook Walk and Seattle Aquarium’s Ocean Pavilion.
Emerald City Comic Con at the Seattle Convention Center.
- The opening of Seattle Aquarium’s Ocean Pavilion and the new Overlook Walk connecting Pike Place Market to downtown’s central waterfront is drawing record numbers of locals downtown.
- Between September and December 2024, local foot traffic was up nearly 25%, surpassing every month of 2019.
Downtown Seattle waterfront
Source: Placer.ai
Downtown Retail
While many of downtown’s attractions are seeing a return of local visitors, the retail core continues to face competition from other shopping centers, including University Village, Southcenter, Bellevue Square and Alderwood Mall. Since 2017, the downtown retail core witnessed the steepest decline in visitor frequency among those regional retail hubs. In 2025, DSA is engaging with a local retail recruiter to evaluate opportunities to bring more street-level options to downtown Seattle. DSA’s retail advocate will work closely with property owners, existing retailers, brokers and the city of Seattle to support increasing traditional retail as well as food and beverage options in downtown.
- More local visitors came to the Pike-Pine area in 2024 than did in 2019, although the frequency of visits remains lower than pre-pandemic levels.
- However, significant challenges remain in the retail core, as the number of locals spending 30-plus minutes in the area declined from 2023, decreasing nearly 6%.
- In 2024, Pike Place Market saw the highest number of locals visiting since 2019 and coming with greater frequency. The amount of locals spending 30-plus minutes at the Market was around 96% of 2019’s level.
Note: Pike-Pine area is defined as Western to Ninth avenues and Stewart to Union streets.
- Locals continue to come to the retail core but not at the rate they did pre-pandemic when downtown was the most frequently visited regional retail area.
- While total unique local visitors to downtown’s retail core in 2024 were similar to pre-pandemic levels, the total number of visits made by locals was only 66% of 2019 total local visits.
- The downtown retail core continues to face competition from other shopping centers, although all area retail centers examined in 2024 were below 2019 visit levels.
- Since 2017, downtown’s retail core witnessed the steepest decline in visitor frequency among regional retail hubs. In 2017 shoppers visited downtown nearly 10 times per year. In 2024 they visited around six — a 42% decline.
- Some of the decline may be related to changing consumer behavior, as visitor frequency to all area retail centers remains below 2017 levels, although downtown has experienced a steeper decline.
Annual average
Overdose Deaths
After a rapid rise in overdose deaths over the past several years, there are signs that our region is turning the corner on the fentanyl crisis. In 2024, overdose fatalities in the United States decreased by 24% and this trend was mirrored on state, county and local levels. In 2023, Washington state had one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the country, but in the past year overdose fatalities declined 41%. As the most populous county in the state, King County, and downtown Seattle specifically, were hit very hard by the fentanyl crisis. However, in 2024 both saw declines from the prior year’s peak. The number of overdose deaths from fentanyl declined by more than one-third in downtown. While this decline is encouraging, downtown Seattle still accounts for the highest number of overdose deaths in the county, and this ongoing public health crisis continues to disproportionately impact the most vulnerable populations.
- King County as a whole saw a 21.6% decrease since last year. Still, downtown experienced the highest number of overdose deaths in the county.
- In 2024, 11% of King County’s overdose deaths occurred in the downtown Seattle core, similar to 2023.
- Following a King County-wide trend, the number of overdose deaths in the downtown core declined 18% from the peak in 2023.
- When looking at fentanyl-related overdose deaths in 2024, the decline was even steeper — decreasing 34% year-over-year.
- In 2024, MID ambassadors administered naloxone to more than 194 individuals suffering from a fentanyl overdose — an 18% decrease from 2023.
Violent Crime Downtown
Violent crime downtown remained relatively stable in 2024, rising less than 1% compared to the previous year and staying below pre-pandemic levels. The Chinatown-International District continues to experience the highest rates of violent crime downtown, although the neighborhood has seen some improvement since its peak in 2022. Despite ongoing challenges in the CID, other parts of downtown have seen positive trends.
- In 2024, violent crime downtown remained stable to the prior year and below pre-pandemic levels with a rise of less than 1%.
- Between 2021 and 2024, incidents of violent crime declined nearly 14%. Over the same period, overall foot traffic downtown increased more than 33%.
- The Chinatown-International District has the highest incidents of violent crime downtown. The level of crime in this neighborhood hit a high peak in 2022 and still continues to face challenges.
- Violent crime in the downtown core (Sector M) dropped 11% from the previous year with significant improvement toward the end of 2024.
- Between September and December 2024, the downtown core (sector M) saw a 27% decrease in incidents of violent crime compared to the same period in 2023.
SPD Officer Staffing
Last year marked a turning point for the Seattle Police Department’s staffing levels. For the first time in five years, the department hired more officers than were separated from the force, albeit by just one officer. This shift in the hiring trend, combined with a decrease in separations, suggests potential stabilization or even growth in the number of officers available to serve the city. Despite the positive trends in hiring and a net increase in deployable officers, SPD staffing levels remain significantly below pre-pandemic levels. In 2024, the department had only 73% of the deployable officers it had in 2019.
- 2024 marked the first time in five years that SPD hired more officers than were separated from the department.
- Additionally, 2024 marked the lowest level of SPD officers departing the Seattle police force since at least 2019.
- SPD saw a net increase of 20 additional deployable officers compared to 2023.
- SPD staffing may be turning a corner, but levels remain significantly below 2019 when there were more than 1,400 deployable officers.
- In 2024, SPD had 73% of the number of deployable officers that it had in 2019.