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. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.74% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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 where college students really create the town feel and character. So many small towns have lost population over the last 20-30 years that having the local college presence in the Ellensburg area, with all of the energy of the students filling area dorms and apartments each fall, really helps Ellensburg maintain a good economy. One of the benefits of Ellensburg is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 18.23 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.The education level of Ellensburg ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in Ellensburg, 45.30% have at least a bachelor's degree. The typical US community has just 21.84% of its adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate 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.
