Berkeley is a larger medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of California. With a population of 102,743 people and 32 constituent neighborhoods, Berkeley is the 54th largest community in California. Berkeley has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Berkeley is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 91.30% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Berkeley is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Berkeley who work in teaching (12.97%), office and administrative support jobs (12.75%), and management occupations (10.88%).

Of important note, Berkeley is also a city of artists. Berkeley has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Berkeley's character.

And if you like science, one thing you'll find is that Berkeley has lots of scientists living in town - whether they be life scientists, physical scientists (like astronomers), or social scientists (like geographers!). So, if you're scientific-minded, you might like it here too.

Also of interest is that Berkeley has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Combining city textures and college town sensibilities, Berkeley really has a nice blend of characteristics. While not a huge city, Berkeley is big enough to offer a healthy dose of diversion, opportunity, and amenity to its residents and to the thousands of college students who descend on it every fall. Its size and diversity makes Berkeley more than just a college town, but removing the students from the equation would undeniably change Berkeley's character and quality of life.

Not only is Berkeley a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a very large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. That's because Berkeley is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Berkeley a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Berkeley is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates." While both of these categories describe educated professionals, urban sophisticates are quite a different demographic. Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness.' But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of Berkeley are somewhat historic and bounded by the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

Berkeley Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Berkeley. 64.25% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 14.96%.

The per capita income in Berkeley in 2000 was $30,477, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $121,908 for a family of four.

Berkeley is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Berkeley home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Berkeley is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Berkeley include German, English, Irish, Italian, Russian, and European.

In addition, Berkeley has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (20.36%).

The most common language spoken in Berkeley is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.