Yelm is a medium-sized city located in the state of Washington. With a population of 11,715 people and six associated neighborhoods, Yelm is the 92nd largest community in Washington. There's nothing like the smell of a brand new house, and in Yelm, you'll find that a large proportion of houses were recently built. New growth in residential real estate is an indication that people are choosing to move to Yelm, and putting down their money on brand new construction. Yelm’s real estate is, on average, some of the newest in the nation. Yelm does seem to be experiencing an influx of affluent people, because the median household income is $90,750.00.

The armed forces are a huge part of the life in Yelm, employing 7.60% of the workforce. While it is a military town, the civilian sector still plays an important role in the local economy, where the Healthcare and Retail industries employ 16.86% and 15.98% of the civilian workforce, respectively.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.67% 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.

One downside of living in Yelm, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 34.71 minutes every day commuting to work.

In terms of college education, Yelm is somewhat better educated than the 21.84% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 27.36% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Yelm in 2022 was $34,142, which is lower middle income relative to Washington, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $136,568 for a family of four. However, Yelm contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Yelm is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Yelm home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Yelm residents report their race to be White, followed by Native Hawaiian. Yelm also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 16.29% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Yelm include German, Irish, Italian, English, and Norwegian.

The most common language spoken in Yelm is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Langs. of India.