For the first time, the Census Bureau has asked Americans whether they own or lease an electric vehicle. Washington’s numbers stand out.
In 2025, 8.9% of Washington households owned or leased at least one electric vehicle, according to new American Community Survey data released Thursday. That’s well above the national rate of 5.5%. Only California, at 13.8%, had a higher estimate.
I've written about other data, such as market research, showing high EV adoption in this area. The new census data supports that.
The survey counts both all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids. It asked households that keep at least one vehicle at home whether any were electric. Nationally, about 7.3 million of the country’s 134 million households had one.
Washington is part of a cluster of Western states near the top. Hawaiʻi, at 8.5%, and Nevada, at 8.2%, ranked third and fourth. At 7.7%, Colorado tied for fifth with Vermont, which had the highest share outside the West.
It's surely not coincidental that these same Western states at the top of the rankings — California, Hawaiʻi, Nevada, Washington — also have the highest average gasoline prices.
At the other end, North Dakota had the smallest share, at 1.3%, followed by Wyoming and Louisiana, both at 1.6%, and South Dakota and Mississippi, both at 1.8%.
The Census Bureau released data for select counties with the highest EV adoption rates. California dominates the list, particularly the Bay Area counties. Santa Clara County was No. 1 at 24.1%, followed by Marin and San Mateo counties, both at 21.4%, Alameda County at 19% and Contra Costa County at 18.3%.
King County is among the counties with the highest share outside California. In 2025, 13.4% of households here had an EV. Boulder County, Colo., and Loudoun County, Va., were both at 13.9%.
Still, King County holds its own against some of California’s best-known places. Its rate was on par with San Francisco County’s 12.6% and Santa Cruz County’s 13.4%. Los Angeles County was somewhat higher, at 14.6%, and San Diego County was at 15%. Orange County was well ahead, at 18.1%.
King County also outpaced its southern neighbor. In Multnomah County, which includes Portland, 9.7% of households had an EV. In suburban Washington County, Ore., the share was 11.1%.
Two other Washington counties appear on the Census Bureau’s list of high-adoption counties: Snohomish at 10.1% and Skagit at 9.5%.
The data also shows a split between homeowners and renters. Nationally, 6.4% of homeowner households had an EV, compared with 3.6% of renters.
In Washington, that gap is wider. Among the states, only California and Vermont had a larger gap in percentage points. Here, 11.2% of homeowner households had an EV, compared with 4.9% of renter households. That makes Washington homeowners more than twice as likely as renters to have one.
California shows the same pattern at a higher level. There, 17.7% of homeowner households had an EV. Even California’s renters, at 8.9%, matched Washington’s overall rate.
Because this is the first year the question was asked, there’s no way yet to measure how fast EV adoption is growing. Future surveys will start to answer that question.
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