Olympia vs Yelm

A side-by-side comparison of Olympia and Yelm: population, income, housing, and more.

Olympia and Yelm are places in Washington. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Olympia has the higher population (55,583 vs 10,618 in Yelm). Yelm has the higher median household income ($88,279 vs $76,930 in Olympia). Olympia has the higher median home value ($457,900 vs $439,100 in Yelm).

Population, income & housing

	Olympia	Yelm
Population	55,583	10,618
Median age	39.2 yrs	30.6 yrs
Median household income	$76,930	$88,279
Median home value	$457,900	$439,100
Median gross rent	$1,509	$1,363
Housing units	26,432	3,529
Homeownership rate	49.3%	69.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.0%	26.1%
Unemployment rate	6.9%	3.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Olympia	Yelm
Population	51,534 → 55,583 (+7.9%)	8,985 → 10,618 (+18.2%)
Median household income	$59,878 → $76,930 (+28.5%)	$75,000 → $88,279 (+17.7%)
Median home value	$297,200 → $457,900 (+54.1%)	$255,200 → $439,100 (+72.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,145 → $1,509 (+31.8%)	$1,373 → $1,363 (-0.7%)

Olympia

Population

51,53455,583

Median household income

$59,878$76,930

Median home value

$297,200$457,900

Median gross rent

$1,145$1,509

Yelm

Population

8,98510,618

Median household income

$75,000$88,279

Median home value

$255,200$439,100

Median gross rent

$1,373$1,363

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Olympia	Yelm
Under 5	5.1%	6.8%
5 to 17	13.4%	24.2%
18 to 24	7.9%	10.6%
25 to 34	17.4%	18.7%
35 to 44	14.4%	14.3%
45 to 54	11.8%	10.8%
55 to 64	11.1%	8.6%
65 to 74	10.9%	3.3%
75 and over	7.9%	2.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Olympia	Yelm
White (non-Hispanic)	71.5%	66.4%
Black or African American	2.5%	4.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.7%	1.2%
Asian	6.5%	0.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	5.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.0%
Two or more races	7.4%	7.6%
Hispanic or Latino	10.3%	13.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Olympia	Yelm
No high school diploma	3.5%	6.0%
High school graduate	16.7%	27.2%
Some college or associate's	29.8%	40.8%
Bachelor's degree	31.2%	16.0%
Graduate or professional degree	18.8%	10.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Olympia	Yelm
Drove alone	62.7%	75.6%
Carpooled	8.0%	13.5%
Public transit	2.5%	0.8%
Walked	4.4%	2.4%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	20.5%	5.6%
Other means	0.8%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Olympia	Yelm
1-unit, detached	51.9%	78.8%
1-unit, attached	5.7%	1.7%
2 to 4 units	8.6%	4.6%
5 to 19 units	14.7%	5.7%
20 or more units	16.4%	5.4%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	3.7%

Poverty & households

	Olympia	Yelm
Poverty rate	14.8%	5.4%
Average household size	2.17	3.05
Mean commute (minutes)	20	33
Median year structure built	1981	2004