Orinda is a somewhat small city located in the state of California. With a population of 17,446 people and five constituent neighborhoods, Orinda is the 332nd largest community in California.

Orinda is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 94.92% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Orinda is a city of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Orinda who work in management occupations (19.97%), sales jobs (14.70%), and business and financial occupations (10.81%).

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

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

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their homes - 9.58% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

Orinda, while not large, also appears to be attractive to some younger, educated professionals, who help shape the character of the city.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Orinda is also home to many people who can 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.

Orinda 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, Orinda's overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.

In Orinda, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 30.44 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

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

Orinda Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Orinda is a pretty powerful place. 73.91% of the adults in Orinda 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 Orinda in 2000 was $65,428, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $261,712 for a family of four. However, Orinda contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

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