Palos Verdes Estates is a somewhat small coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of California. With a population of 13,340 people and three constituent neighborhoods, Palos Verdes Estates is the 371st largest community in California.

Palos Verdes Estates is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 95.75% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Palos Verdes Estates is a city of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Palos Verdes Estates who work in management occupations (26.31%), sales jobs (14.72%), and healthcare (9.39%).

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

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.77% 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, Palos Verdes Estates 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, Palos Verdes Estates is a great place for families with children to consider. First of all, many other families with children live here, making Palos Verdes Estates 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, Palos Verdes Estates has a high rate of owner-occupied single family homes, which tends to reflect stability in the local community. Finally, Palos Verdes Estates's overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.

One of the nice things about Palos Verdes Estates is that is it nautical, meaning that parts of the city are somewhat historic and on the ocean, or touch tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

In Palos Verdes Estates, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.85 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

For most residents of Palos Verdes Estates, getting to work requires a car. In fact, 97.6% of people in Palos Verdes Estates drive alone to work on most days, making Palos Verdes Estates a very car-oriented city. In general, car-oriented communities tend to emphasize streets, highways, and ease of parking, often to the detriment of walkability. Strip centers are a feature of Palos Verdes Estates's landscape.

Palos Verdes Estates 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.

Palos Verdes Estates Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Palos Verdes Estates, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Palos Verdes Estates is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 70.85% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 14.96%.

The per capita income in Palos Verdes Estates in 2000 was $69,040, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $276,160 for a family of four. However, Palos Verdes Estates contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

Palos Verdes Estates also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 19.03%.

The languages spoken by people in Palos Verdes Estates are also diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in Palos Verdes Estates is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Korean.