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.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.38% 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.

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.

One of the nice things about Mercer Island is that is it nautical, meaning that parts of the city are somewhat historic and on the ocean, or touch tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

Mercer Island is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.

Mercer Island Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Mercer Island. 69.10% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 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.