Federal Way is a relatively large coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Washington. With a population of 100,252 people and 22 associated neighborhoods, Federal Way is the tenth largest community in Washington. Housing costs in Federal Way 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 Washington.Unlike some cities, Federal Way isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Federal Way are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Federal Way is a city of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Federal Way who work in management occupations (10.29%), office and administrative support (10.08%), and sales jobs (8.11%). Also of interest is that Federal Way 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 Federal Way telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 13.70% 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. One of the nice things about Federal Way is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities. In Federal Way, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.21 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. For the size of the city, public transportation in Federal Way is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the bus. For Federal Way, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.In terms of college education, Federal Way is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 21.84% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 30.77% of adults in Federal Way have a college degree. The per capita income in Federal Way in 2022 was $40,975, 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 $163,900 for a family of four. However, Federal Way contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Federal Way is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Federal Way home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Federal Way residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Federal Way also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 20.04% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Federal Way include German, English, Irish, Norwegian, and Italian. Foreign born people are also an important part of Federal Way's cultural character, accounting for 31.90% of the city’s population. The most common language spoken in Federal Way is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Korean.
