Taxable retail sales increased 6.6 percent to $124.85 billion during calendar year 2014 compared to 2013, the Washington State Department of Revenue reported on May 26.

Retail trade, a subset of all sales that excludes nonretail sectors such as construction and services, rose 4.8 percent to $56.31 billion.

Within the retail sector:

• New and used car sales rose 7.9 percent to $10.76 billion.
• Building materials, garden equipment and supplies increased 7.5 percent to $5.35 billion
• E-commerce and mail order went up 19.8 percent to $2.09 billion
• Drug and health stores rose by 8.3 percent to $1.81 billion

The construction industry saw large gains, with an overall increase of 9.6 percent to $21.14 billion. Building construction drove most of those gains, rising 9.7 percent to $11.57 billion.

While many industries saw gains in 2014, some showed slight declines. Department stores dropped 2.2 percent to $2.96 billion, and book stores and news dealers also dropped by 1.5 percent to $295 million.

Results for the most populous counties:

Results for cities with the most sales:

Revenue provides detailed reports of taxable retail sales and retail trade figures by county and city, as well as a breakdown of sales statewide by industry. These files can be found at http://dor.wa.gov/Content/AboutUs/StatisticsAndReports/stats_lrs2014.aspx.

Results for all counties and selected cities, including breakdowns of sales by industry sector, are available at http://dor.wa.gov/Content/AboutUs/StatisticsAndReports/2014/qbrcal14/default.aspx.