Mercer Island is a medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Washington. With a population of 22,036 people and four constituent neighborhoods, Mercer Island is the 47th largest community in Washington.

Mercer Island is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 94.25% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Mercer Island is a city of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Mercer Island who work in management occupations (19.80%), sales jobs (13.40%), and healthcare (10.59%).

Also of interest is that Mercer Island 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 homes - 7.38% 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.

In addition, Mercer Island is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates," which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of Mercer Island are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.

Being a small city, Mercer Island does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Mercer Island Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Mercer Island, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Mercer Island is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 69.10% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 14.96%.

The per capita income in Mercer Island in 2000 was $53,799, which is wealthy relative to Washington and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $215,196 for a family of four. However, Mercer Island contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Mercer Island is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Mercer Island home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Mercer Island is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Mercer Island include English, German, Irish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Polish, European, and Scottish.

The most common language spoken in Mercer Island is English. Some people also speak Chinese.