Ellensburg is a medium-sized city located in the state of Washington. With a population of 18,703 people and seven associated neighborhoods, Ellensburg is the 62nd largest community in Washington.Ellensburg is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Ellensburg is a city of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Ellensburg who work in food service (14.17%), teaching (10.48%), and office and administrative support (10.19%). Also of interest is that Ellensburg has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 8.74% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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. Ellensburg is a small town with a large college student population. Because of this, there is a real youthful, hip vibe to the place, and much of the life in the town is centered on the college. This has helped Ellensburg to buck the trend of other small towns that have suffered declining populations over the past 20 to 30 years. Spending by students, and faculty and staff jobs, are a big part of the local economy. Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 18.23 minutes getting to work every day.The citizens of Ellensburg are among the most well-educated in the nation: 45.30% of adults in Ellensburg have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Ellensburg in 2022 was $30,474, which is lower middle income relative to Washington, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $121,896 for a family of four. However, Ellensburg contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Ellensburg is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Ellensburg home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ellensburg residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Ellensburg also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.01% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Ellensburg include German, Irish, English, European, and Norwegian. The most common language spoken in Ellensburg is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Pacific Island languages.
