Port Townsend is a somewhat small coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Washington. With a population of 8,325 people and two constituent neighborhoods, Port Townsend is the 103rd largest community in Washington.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Port Townsend is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Port Townsend is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Port Townsend who work in office and administrative support jobs (11.53%), sales jobs (10.77%), and food service (8.49%).

Of important note, Port Townsend is also a city of artists. Port Townsend has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Port Townsend's character.

A relatively large number of people in Port Townsend telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 9.83% 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.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of Port Townsend are somewhat historic and bounded by the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

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 17.64 minutes getting to work every day.

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

Port Townsend Information and Demographics

The education level of Port Townsend citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (14.96%): 33.07% of adults in Port Townsend have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Port Townsend in 2000 was $22,395, which is upper middle income relative to Washington and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $89,580 for a family of four.

The people who call Port Townsend home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Port Townsend is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Port Townsend include German, English, Irish, Norwegian, Italian, Scottish, Swedish, French, Polish, Scotch-Irish, and European.

The most common language spoken in Port Townsend is English.