About Seattle, Washington

Skyline Baptist Church

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the largest city in the state of Washington, boasting a population of over 600,000 people. Nearly 10% of the entire population of the state lives in the eighty-four square miles that make up the city limits. The Seattle metro area (King County) is home to over 1.7 million people (nearly 1/3 of the state's population), and is expected to grow to nearly 2 million in the next five years.

Some familiar corporate and institutional names adorn the list of top employers in the Seattle area, including the Boeing Corp., Alaska Airlines, Microsoft, the University of Washington, Safeway, Amazon.com and AT&T.

The major religion of the state of Washington is Roman Catholic, with 1/5 of the population claiming membership. This is evident in Seattle, as the Catholic Church claims a majority of the churches here (44). The Episcopal (39), Presbyterian (30), Methodist (22) and Christian Science (20) "churches" also have a presence in the city. There are numerous "New Age" centers spread throughout Seattle, and the far-Eastern religions of Buddhism and Hinduism also have a following. Including Skyline Baptist Church, there are only two independent Baptist churches listed in the city of Seattle in the phone directory!

An article in the Washington (D.C.) Post newspaper (11/7/04) called Seattle the "agnostic mecca" of the Pacific Northwest, a region where one out of every four people claims no church affiliation whatsoever.