List of cities in Washington
Washington is a state located in the Western United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, Washington is the 13th most populous state with 6,724,543 inhabitants but the 20th largest by land area spanning 66,455.52 square miles (172,119.0 km2) of land. Washington is divided into 39 counties and contains 281 incorporated municipalities consisting of cities and towns.
Legally, a city in Washington can be described primarily by its class. There are five classes of municipalities in Washington: first class city, second class city, town, unclassified city, and code city.
First class cities are the 10 cities with a population over 10,000 at the time of reorganization and operating under a home rule charter. They are permitted to perform any function specifically granted them by Title 35 RCW (Revised Code of Washington). Second class cities are the 9 cities with a population over 1,500 at the time of reorganization and operating without a home rule charter. Like first class cities, they are permitted to perform any function specifically granted them by Title 35 RCW. Towns are the 69 municipalities with a population of under 1,500 at the time of reorganization. Towns are not authorized to operate under a charter. Like the previously listed cities, they are permitted to perform any function specifically granted them by Title 35 RCW. In 1994, the legislature made 1,500 the minimum population required to incorporate. Unclassified cities are cities that are not operating under any other class. Only one city—Waitsburg, in Walla Walla County—is unclassified. It operates under the 1881 territorial charter under which it was organized, eight years before Washington was admitted to the Union in 1889. Code cities were created by the state legislature in order to grant the greatest degree of local control to municipalities possible under the state constitution and general law. This classification has been adopted by 192 municipalities in Washington. Code cities (shorthand for optional municipal code cities, as encoded by Title 35A RCW) are authorized to perform any function not specifically denied them in the state constitution or by state law. They may perform any function granted to any other city classification under Title 35 RCW.
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