Mill Creek is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, located south of Everett and northeast of Lynnwood, about twenty miles from downtown Seattle. Its population was 20,926 at the 2020 census, concentrated in a compact city of roughly 4.7 square miles. Mill Creek is one of the region's most deliberately designed communities: conceived in the 1970s as a master-planned development by the Tokyu Land Corporation, it was built around a country club and golf course rather than a traditional town center, and it incorporated as a city on September 30, 1983. Because the original plan had no downtown, the city later created one. The Mill Creek Town Center, opened in the mid-2000s along the Bothell-Everett Highway, is a lifestyle center with about 88 shops, restaurants, and services that now serves as the community's commercial and social heart. Together with the Mill Creek Country Club, it completes the vision of a self-contained suburban community, giving residents a walkable gathering place without leaving the city. For residents, Mill Creek is defined by an active, outdoors-oriented lifestyle. The city maintains ten or more neighborhood and community parks, more than 23 miles of nature trails, and a nature preserve, all woven through its landscaped neighborhoods. Students attend the Everett School District — including Mill Creek Elementary, opened in 1988 — with parts of the city served by the Northshore School District. As one of the county's higher-income, family-oriented communities with strong schools and convenient access to Seattle, Everett, and the Eastside employment centers, Mill Creek remains a model of the master-planned Pacific Northwest suburb.