Big Rapids is a somewhat small city located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 8,565 people and six associated neighborhoods, Big Rapids is the 143rd largest community in Michigan. Big Rapids has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.Big Rapids is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Big Rapids is a city of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Big Rapids who work in food service (15.11%), sales jobs (8.92%), and office and administrative support (8.35%). One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.98% 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. Big Rapids is a small town where college students really create the town feel and character. So many small towns have lost population over the last 20-30 years that having the local college presence in the Big Rapids area, with all of the energy of the students filling area dorms and apartments each fall, really helps Big Rapids maintain a good economy. One of the benefits of Big Rapids is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 16.76 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.The percentage of people in Big Rapids who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 21.84%: 26.89% of adults in Big Rapids have at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Big Rapids in 2022 was $23,446, which is low income relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $93,784 for a family of four. However, Big Rapids contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Big Rapids also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 34.11% of its population below the federal poverty line.Big Rapids is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Big Rapids home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Big Rapids residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Big Rapids include German, English, Irish, Polish, and Dutch. The most common language spoken in Big Rapids is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
