Opelika is a medium-sized city located in the state of Alabama. With a population of 23,529 people and nine constituent neighborhoods, Opelika is the 20th largest community in Alabama.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Opelika is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Opelika is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Opelika who work in office and administrative support jobs (15.23%), sales jobs (10.42%), and management occupations (9.22%).

Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 17.16 minutes getting to work every day.

Residents of Opelika by-and-large get to work each day by driving: 97% use their own cars for their daily commute, making it a very car-oriented city. While Opelika may be a convenient place for driving around town, the negative aspect of this is that places that are suitable for walking or bicycling to and from work or stores may be few and far between. In general, car-oriented communities emphasize roads and convenience of driving, but not have a lot of walking-friendly areas to get from home to work, and tend not to have a lot of public transportation options.

Opelika Information and Demographics

In terms of college education, Opelika is somewhat better educated than the 14.96% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 22.30% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Opelika in 2000 was $18,023, which is upper middle income relative to Alabama, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $72,092 for a family of four.

Opelika is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Opelika home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Opelika is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Opelika include English, Irish, German, and Scotch-Irish.

The most common language spoken in Opelika is English.