Athens is a relatively large city located in the state of Georgia. With a population of 128,691 people and 35 associated neighborhoods, Athens is the sixth largest community in Georgia.Athens is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Athens is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Athens who work in teaching (12.65%), food service (9.68%), and management occupations (9.52%). Also of interest is that Athens 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: 13.55% 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. Athens is a nice balance between life in a moderately big city and the interesting diversions and culture that come from having a big college student population. The thousands of students who arrive on campus every fall will find that Athens has plenty of amenities and opportunities for them, while residents of Athens enjoy the lectures, music, art, and economic trickle-down that colleges typically provide. "Town and Gown" complement each other in Athens. The citizens of Athens are among the most well-educated in the nation: 47.31% of adults in Athens have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Athens in 2022 was $32,491, which is upper middle income relative to Georgia, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $129,964 for a family of four. However, Athens contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Athens is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Athens home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Athens residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Athens also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 11.90% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Athens include English, German, Irish, Italian, and Scottish. The most common language spoken in Athens is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
