It is one of three Washington counties that are included in the Seattle– Tacoma– Bellevue metropolitan statistical area. King in 1852, in 1985 the county amended its designation and logo to honor Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent civil rights activist during the Civil Rights Movement. Originally named after US representative William R.
The county seat is Seattle, also the state's most populous city.
The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States.
