Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Named for George Washington, the first U.S. president, the state was made out of the western part of the Washington Territory, in accordance with the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute. The state is bordered on the West by the Pacific Ocean, Oregon to the South, Idaho to the East, and the Canadian province of British Columbia to the North.

Olympia is the state capital; the state’s largest city is Seattle. Washington is often referred to as Washington state to distinguish it from the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Washington has a total area of 71,362 square miles (184,827 km2).

The United States Census Bureau estimates Washington’s population was 7,614,893 in 2019. In 2010, 82.51% of Washington residents aged 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 7.79% spoke Spanish, 1.19% Chinese, 0.94% Vietnamese, 0.84% Tagalog, 0.83% Korean, 0.80% Russian, and German, 0.55%. In total, 17.49% of Washington’s population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.

The government of Washington State is the governmental structure of the State of Washington as established by the Constitution of the State of Washington.

• The executive is composed of the Governor, several other statewide elected officials and the Governor’s cabinet.
• The Washington State Legislature consists of the House of Representatives and State Senate.
• The judiciary is composed of the Washington Supreme Court and lower courts.
• There is also a local government, consisting of counties, municipalities and special districts.

According to The Bureau of Economic Analysis, Washington had a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$ 569.449 billion in 2018. Its per capita personal income was US$ 62,026.

Washington state is the nation’s largest concentration of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) workers. The state has a large volume of seaborne foreign trade with Asia. Leading economic sectors are Government, Real Estate and Rental Leasing, and Information; manufacturing comes fourth (8.6% of the state’s GDP). Fruit and vegetable production, and hydroelectric power, are other important sectors. Important firms based in Washington include Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft.