The number of people visiting downtown Portland is continuing its slow but steady upward crawl.
Foot traffic in 2025 increased 5.5% from 2024, according to Downtown Portland Clean & Safe’s end-of-year report, which used data collected by Placer.ai. Though the city has yet to match pre-pandemic numbers — just over 32 million pedestrians visited downtown last year, compared to 43 million in 2019 — weekends are experiencing the strongest comeback.
The report encompassed Clean & Safe’s expanded 273-block district, including parts of downtown-adjacent neighborhoods like Old Town-Chinatown and the Pearl District.
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Saturdays outperform any other day of the week in terms of recovery, reaching nearly 90% of pre-pandemic levels.
In 2025, seven Saturdays even surpassed 2019 foot traffic numbers, according to the report.
Those included the Lunar New Year celebration in February, which coincided with the Winter Lights Festival; one spring Saturday during cherry blossom season; day two of August’s Rockstar Energy Open; the No Kings protest in October; and Small Business Saturday on Thanksgiving weekend.
“Visitor confidence and downtown vibrancy have largely returned,” the report read, “with seasonal peaks tied to major cultural events, festivals, and holiday periods now reliably producing near-normal or above-normal activity.”
Portlanders’ general impressions of downtown have also improved, according to a poll from early last year.
But while pedestrian data maintains a steady climb, worker foot traffic continues to stall.
Employee traffic has hovered around 4 to 4.5 million since 2022, according to the report, compared to almost 9 million in 2019. Office vacancy rates remain among the nation’s highest, and in 2023, 360,000 Oregonians worked from home — the second-highest share of remote workers in the country.
“Downtown is functioning more as a destination and experience center than as a five-day-a-week office district,” according to the report.
Much of the city center’s recovery lies in recent and upcoming cultural projects. While the James Beard Public Market delayed its opening to 2027, the Portland Art Museum unveiled its expanded campus in November.
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