West St. Paul is a medium-sized city located in the state of Minnesota. With a population of 21,794 people and five associated neighborhoods, West St. Paul is the 58th largest community in Minnesota.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, West St. Paul is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, West St. Paul is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in West St. Paul who work in sales jobs (11.48%), office and administrative support (10.90%), and management occupations (9.05%). Also of interest is that West St. Paul has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. A relatively large number of people in West St. Paul telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 14.90% 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. Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, West St. Paul is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the bus helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the West St. Paul area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.The citizens of West St. Paul are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 35.38% of adults in West St. Paul have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree. The per capita income in West St. Paul in 2022 was $40,563, which is upper middle income relative to Minnesota and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $162,252 for a family of four. However, West St. Paul contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. West St. Paul is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call West St. Paul home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of West St. Paul residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. West St. Paul also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 20.36% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in West St. Paul include German, Irish, Norwegian, English, and Swedish. The most common language spoken in West St. Paul is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Miao/Hmong.
