Wakefield is a medium-sized town located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 27,069 people and five associated neighborhoods, Wakefield is the 73rd largest community in Massachusetts. Housing costs in Wakefield 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 Massachusetts.Wakefield is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 87.94% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Wakefield is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Wakefield who work in management occupations (17.18%), business and financial occupations (9.71%), and sales jobs (9.53%). Also of interest is that Wakefield 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: 20.35% 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. In addition, Wakefield is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums. Because of many things, Wakefield is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Wakefield really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Wakefield perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live. In Wakefield, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 31.98 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 town are by private automobile, Wakefield is somewhat unusual for a town of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the subway helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Wakefield area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Wakefield. 56.87% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%. The per capita income in Wakefield in 2022 was $64,988, which is upper middle income relative to Massachusetts, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $259,952 for a family of four. The people who call Wakefield home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Wakefield residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Wakefield include Irish, Italian, English, German, and Polish. The most common language spoken in Wakefield is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
