Lafayette is a medium-sized city located in the state of California. With a population of 23,463 people and five constituent neighborhoods, Lafayette is the 288th largest community in California.

Lafayette is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 92.13% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Lafayette is a city of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Lafayette who work in management occupations (19.67%), sales jobs (11.73%), and business and financial occupations (8.47%).

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

A relatively large number of people in Lafayette telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 8.99% 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 addition, Lafayette is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." 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.

Because of many things, Lafayette is a great place for families with children to consider. First of all, many other families with children live here, making Lafayette a place where both parents and children are more likely to develop social ties with other families, as well as find family-oriented services and community. The city's good public school district and large population of college-educated adults provide an environment conducive to academic values. With regard to real estate, Lafayette has a high rate of owner-occupied single family homes, which tends to reflect stability in the local community. Finally, Lafayette's overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.

Being a small city, Lafayette does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Lafayette Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Lafayette is a pretty powerful place. 67.97% of the adults in Lafayette have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 14.96% for all cities and towns.

The per capita income in Lafayette in 2000 was $54,319, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $217,276 for a family of four. However, Lafayette contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Lafayette is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Lafayette home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Lafayette is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Lafayette include English, German, Irish, Italian, Scottish, French, Swedish, and Norwegian.

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