Health care seems to be the area's main growth industry.
Whidbey General Hospital, with 325 staff members, is now Coupeville's largest single employer. Many more jobs have been created in the offices of specialists, nursing homes, and other health-related enterprises that have sprung up around the island's only hospital. Coupeville itself isn't likely to grow much, and that's the way the locals like it. Geographically squeezed between the waters of Penn Cove and the preserve farmland, Coupeville doesn't have much space to grow. But the really big problem is water.