Kent is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Washington. With a population of 134,392 people and 32 associated neighborhoods, Kent is the sixth largest community in Washington. Housing costs in Kent are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in Washington.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Kent is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Kent is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Kent who work in office and administrative support (12.55%), management occupations (9.89%), and sales jobs (7.20%). Also of interest is that Kent has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 10.09% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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 Kent, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 31.28 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Kent 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 Kent area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.In terms of college education, Kent is somewhat better educated than the 21.84% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 27.89% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Kent in 2022 was $39,714, which is upper middle income relative to Washington and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $158,856 for a family of four. However, Kent contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Kent is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Kent home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Kent residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Kent also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 16.27% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Kent include German, English, Irish, European, and Somalian. Foreign born people are also an important part of Kent's cultural character, accounting for 32.17% of the city’s population. The most common language spoken in Kent is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Vietnamese.
