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. Much of the housing stock in Yelm was built relatively recently. The construction of new real estate can often be taken as an indication that the local Yelm economy is robust, and that jobs or other amenities are attracting an influx of new residents. This seems to be the case in Yelm, where the median household income is $90,750.00.

7.60% of the workforce is employed in the armed forces, making the military a huge focus of life in Yelm. Even though it is a military town, the civilian sector still plays an important role in the local economy. The Healthcare and Retail industries respectively employ 16.86% and 15.98% of the civilian workforce.

A relatively large number of people in Yelm telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 8.67% 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.

In Yelm, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 34.71 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

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.