Cookeville is a medium-sized city located in the state of Tennessee. With a population of 36,657 people and 16 associated neighborhoods, Cookeville is the 24th largest community in Tennessee.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Cookeville is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Cookeville is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Cookeville who work in sales jobs (12.40%), food service (11.35%), and teaching (8.41%). Also of interest is that Cookeville 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: 7.61% 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.Cookeville is also a college town, where lots of students live while attending area colleges. Because of the high percentage of people living in Cookeville enrolled in college, Cookeville has a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared towards the needs and activities of students. The citizens of Cookeville are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 35.36% of adults in Cookeville have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree. The per capita income in Cookeville in 2022 was $27,875, which is middle income relative to Tennessee, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $111,500 for a family of four. However, Cookeville contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Cookeville is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Cookeville home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Cookeville residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Cookeville also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 11.18% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Cookeville include English, German, Irish, Scots-Irish, and Italian. The most common language spoken in Cookeville is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
