The people.

The early settlers, from the 1830s through the 1850s, came primarily from the Midwest along the Oregon Trail. Growth was slow until the 1880s, when railroads began to link Puget Sound and the Columbia River to the East and to California, ending the frontier era of the Pacific Northwest. The population of Washington grew fivefold from 1881 to 1890, to almost 360,000--and by 1920 it reached almost 1,360,000.

Immigration continued, particularly from the Midwest, and, until national quotas on foreign immigration of the 1920s, large numbers of foreign-born people entered the state, especially from Canada and the Scandinavian countries. The Japanese came late and by 1930 numbered about 18,000. During World War II, citizens or not, they were moved from the coastal areas to relocation camps in inland regions. After the war only a few received back their homes and property, and many chose to live elsewhere.

Washington has a relatively small percentage of blacks. It ranks among the top 10 states, however, in numbers of American Indians and Asians.

For decades the western movement of the nation's population dominated Washington's growth. During the 1950s, however, for the first time and by a wide margin, natural increase overtook immigration. Immigration has regained some of its former importance, but it remains below natural increase as a growth factor.

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