Vashon is a somewhat small coastal town (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Washington. With a population of 10,123 people and two constituent neighborhoods, Vashon is the 80th largest community in Washington.

Vashon is neither predominently blue-collar or white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Vashon is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Vashon who work in management occupations (12.66%), office and administrative support jobs (9.73%), and sales jobs (8.68%).

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

Also of interest is that Vashon 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 Vashon telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 8.63% 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.

Because of many things, Vashon is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Vashon really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Vashon perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

The town is also nautical, which means that parts of Vashon 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.

One downside of living in Vashon is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Vashon, the average commute to work is 46.95 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

Being a small town, Vashon does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Vashon Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Vashon is a pretty powerful place. 48.83% of the adults in Vashon have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 14.96% for all cities and towns.

The per capita income in Vashon in 2000 was $31,983, which is wealthy relative to Washington and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $127,932 for a family of four.

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

The most common language spoken in Vashon is English. Some people also speak Spanish.