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.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 8.99% 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.

In addition, Lafayette is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates," which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.

Lafayette is a good choice for families with children because of several factors. Many other families with children live here, making it a place where both parents and children are more likely to develop social ties with other families. The city's good public school district and large population of college-educated adults provide an environment conducive to academic success. Many people own their own single-family homes, providing areas for children to play and stability in the community. Finally, Lafayette's overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.

Lafayette is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.

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.