Carthage is a medium-sized city located in the state of Missouri. With a population of 15,556 people and three associated neighborhoods, Carthage is the 51st largest community in Missouri.Unlike some cities, Carthage isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Carthage are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Carthage is a city of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Carthage who work in office and administrative support (9.97%), maintenance occupations (8.79%), and teaching (8.68%). Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 8.12% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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 benefits of Carthage is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 16.77 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. Being a small city, Carthage does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.The citizens of Carthage are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 23.03% of adults in Carthage having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in Carthage in 2022 was $21,524, which is low income relative to Missouri and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $86,096 for a family of four. However, Carthage contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Carthage also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 32.96% of its population below the federal poverty line.Carthage is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Carthage home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Carthage residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Carthage also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 36.43% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Carthage include German, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. The most common language spoken in Carthage is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Vietnamese.
