East Ridge is a medium-sized city located in the state of Tennessee. With a population of 21,936 people and five associated neighborhoods, East Ridge is the 31st largest community in Tennessee.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, East Ridge is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, East Ridge is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in East Ridge who work in office and administrative support (13.71%), sales jobs (12.61%), and food service (9.27%). A relatively large number of people in East Ridge telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 11.94% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. Being a small city, East Ridge does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.The citizens of East Ridge are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 21.45% of adults in East Ridge having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in East Ridge in 2022 was $30,355, which is upper middle income relative to Tennessee, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $121,420 for a family of four. However, East Ridge contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. East Ridge is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call East Ridge home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of East Ridge residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. East Ridge also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 13.33% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in East Ridge include English, German, Irish, Italian, and Yugoslavian. The most common language spoken in East Ridge is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Serbo-Croatian.
