Bloomington is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Indiana. With a population of 79,986 people and 28 associated neighborhoods, Bloomington is the seventh largest community in Indiana.Bloomington is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 85.04% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Bloomington is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Bloomington who work in teaching (15.27%), office and administrative support (9.07%), and food service (8.57%). Also of interest is that Bloomington 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: 18.25% 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. Bloomington is also a major college town with a large number of people who are 18 years or older and attending college. As is often the case in college towns, the many students that live in Bloomington have a strong influence on the local culture and entertainment scene, which may seem dormant by comparison in the summer months when much of the student population is away. In the fall, the return of students has a reinvigorating effect on the community. Because colleges are lasting institutions, they have a stabilizing effect on the economy by providing direct local benefits such as jobs for faculty and staff and spending by students. Bloomington’s economy is one such example of this. Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 18.73 minutes getting to work every day.If knowledge is power, Bloomington is a pretty powerful place. 58.82% of the adults in Bloomington have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns. The per capita income in Bloomington in 2022 was $35,299, which is upper middle income relative to Indiana, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $141,196 for a family of four. However, Bloomington contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Bloomington is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Bloomington home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Bloomington residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Bloomington include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Polish. The most common language spoken in Bloomington is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
