How to Meet People if You're From Anacortes, Washington
If you're from Anacortes, Washington, you know the feeling: you open a dating app, scroll through the options, and you've seen everyone before. Anacortes is a city of about 18,000 people in Skagit County, Washington, and a pool that size only goes so far.
Anacortes in numbers
| Population (2025 estimate) | 18,080 |
|---|---|
| County | Skagit County |
| Change since 2020 | +2.6% |
| Size rank in Washington | 63 of 281 cities and towns |
| Larger than | 78% of Washington's cities and towns |
| Other cities and towns within 30 miles | 13 (224,000 people combined) |
| Nearest city of 25,000 or more (OR, ID, WA, MT) | Mount Vernon, Washington: 15 miles (35,000 people) |
Population estimates by year:
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17,672 | 17,903 | 18,011 | 18,025 | 18,071 | 18,080 |
Why dating close to home runs out
Add up every incorporated city and town within 30 miles of Anacortes and you get 13 places with about 224,000 people between them, not counting Anacortes itself. Within 60 miles it's 46 places and about 1,050,000 people. Those totals count incorporated places only, so people outside city limits would add to them, but the point stands: that's the circle a distance-sorted app draws first, and it runs out fast.
| Distance from Anacortes | Other cities and towns | People in them |
|---|---|---|
| Within 10 miles | 1 | 991 |
| Within 30 miles | 13 | 224,353 |
| Within 60 miles | 46 | 1,050,258 |
| Within 100 miles | 102 | 3,484,929 |
Why Bellingham is out of reach for you on the big apps
Dating in Anacortes is hard, and meeting someone in Bellingham can be harder. Many dating apps lean on distance to decide who you see, and Tinuiti's analysis of Tinder's algorithm says proximity is a key factor in who it shows you. Bellingham is 20 miles away and has about 96,000 people, and most of the people there live nearer to each other than to you. When someone in Bellingham opens a distance-ranked app, their own neighbors come first, so you land behind them in their deck whatever your photos and profile say.
Bellingham has about 5 times as many people as Anacortes, so a member from Anacortes is outnumbered there roughly 5 to 1 before the ranking even starts. There are 5 other incorporated places closer to Bellingham than Anacortes is, with about 41,000 people between them, and they tend to come ahead of you in Bellingham's deck.
On Amarbis, ranking isn't based on distance. Choose Washington as your region and Bellingham is in your pool with everyone else in Washington, so you aren't placed behind the person's next-door neighbor because of where you live.
Bigger places within reach of Anacortes, each with its own guide:
- Bellingham, WA: 96,395 people, 20 miles away
- Marysville, WA: 77,686 people, 36 miles away
- Everett, WA: 113,567 people, 42 miles away
- Shoreline, WA: 66,542 people, 52 miles away
- Kirkland, WA: 97,410 people, 58 miles away
How region-based dating changes it
Amarbis lets you choose the region you meet people from. Instead of being limited to whoever lives closest to Anacortes, you can meet people across all of Washington, which has about 8.0 million people, roughly 440 times as many as live in Anacortes. And because Amarbis has no distance limits, you aren't limited to Washington either.
Other places near Anacortes
- Oak Harbor, WA: 24,083 people, 13 miles away
- Burlington, WA: 11,356 people, 14 miles away
- Mount Vernon, WA: 35,193 people, 15 miles away
- Sedro-Woolley, WA: 13,308 people, 18 miles away
- Friday Harbor, WA: 2,729 people, 18 miles away
- Coupeville, WA: 1,920 people, 19 miles away
Browse every city and town in Washington.
Other places in Skagit County
Skagit County has 8 incorporated places with 80,470 people between them. Nearby places in the county include:
- Burlington: 11,356 people, 14 miles away
- Mount Vernon: 35,193 people, 15 miles away
- Sedro-Woolley: 13,308 people, 18 miles away
How to start from Anacortes
- Join free and add a real photo of your face; photos are screened before anyone sees them.
- Pick your region. All of Washington is the obvious first choice from Anacortes.
- Message first. One good question costs nothing, and you can decide later how far to travel. If they write in another language, chat translation handles it.
It costs nothing to look. Amarbis gives you 25 free likes a day, unlimited messaging with your matches and built-in chat translation (5 free translations a month), with no credit card needed. Start at Amarbis.
More from Amarbis
- Why Amarbis is the best dating app for small towns
- Singles in the United States
- International dating guide
- Overcoming language barriers in love
- Meeting someone safely for the first time
- Plans and pricing
Population figures are U.S. Census Bureau estimates for July 1, 2025. Distances are straight-line miles between place center points, so road distances are longer. Counts of nearby places include incorporated cities and towns in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Montana only.