LIVING IN VANCOUVER
POPULATION: 190,915
Living in Vancouver, Washington means having one foot in the country and the other in suburbia. Vancouver is the fourth largest city in Washington State and part of the Portland, Oregon Metro Area. Yet rivers, foothills, and mountains of the Cascade Range dominate the visual landscape. You’ll feel like a part of civilization but live only a short drive from backcountry wilderness.
If you’re moving to Vancouver from somewhere outside the Pacific Northwest, living here might require a few small adjustments. Homes here are probably cheaper than the place from which you are moving. There’s a good chance your quality of life will improve (especially if you love the outdoors). But, you will need to endure long, gray winters to reap those benefits; perhaps a small price to pay for all the upside.
The Oregon and Washington Coasts are roughly 100 miles away, perfect for day and weekend getaways.
The Vancouver Parks& Recreation Department operates several community and neighborhood parks, sports fields, trails, and natural areas. There are 113 parks (76 developed) and 20 miles of trails. Soccer is big in Vancouver; every weekend the city’s parks are filled with youth games and most weeknights you will find adult leagues bashing the ball around the fields. Adult softball leagues are another popular activity in the summer.
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Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Vancouver is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Vancouver is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Vancouver who work in office and administrative support (11.83%), sales jobs (9.36%), and management occupations (8.70%).
Also of interest is that Vancouver 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 Vancouver telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 8.82% 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 education level of Vancouver citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 29.96% of adults in Vancouver have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Vancouver in 2018 was $33,713, which is middle income relative to Washington, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $134,852 for a family of four. However, Vancouver contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Vancouver is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Vancouver home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Vancouver residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Vancouver also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.65% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Vancouver include German, Irish, English, Norwegian, and Italian.
The most common language spoken in Vancouver is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Slavic languages.