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Data on this report is based on areas within the legal city boundary, outlined in black on the map. Any additional neighborhoods shown on the map are associated with the city by name and are included for reference only.

Tacoma, WA
Real Estate & Demographic Data






Tacoma profile


Living in Tacoma



Tacoma is a relatively large coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Washington. With a population of 221,776 people and 71 constituent neighborhoods, Tacoma is the third largest community in Washington.

Also of interest is that Tacoma 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: 9.91% 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.

One thing noticeable about Tacoma, although not a huge city, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That’s because Tacoma is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Tacoma a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

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

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Tacoma is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the bus helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Tacoma area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

The education level of Tacoma citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 31.30% of adults in Tacoma have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Tacoma in 2018 was $37,263, which is upper middle income relative to Washington and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $149,052 for a family of four. However, Tacoma contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Tacoma is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Tacoma home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Tacoma residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Tacoma also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.15% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Tacoma include German, Irish, English, Norwegian, and Italian.

The most common language spoken in Tacoma is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Vietnamese.