Petaluma 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 54,538 people and ten constituent neighborhoods, Petaluma is the 144th largest community in California.

Unlike some cities, Petaluma isn't mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Petaluma are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Petaluma is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Petaluma who work in office and administrative support jobs (16.21%), sales jobs (11.77%), and management occupations (10.74%).

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

In addition, Petaluma is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

One of the nice things about Petaluma 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.

One downside of living in Petaluma, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 33.80 minutes every day commuting to work.

Petaluma Information and Demographics

In terms of college education, Petaluma is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 14.96% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 30.11% of adults in Petaluma have a college degree.

The per capita income in Petaluma in 2000 was $27,087, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $108,348 for a family of four.

Petaluma is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Petaluma home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Petaluma is White, followed by Asian. Petaluma also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 15.23% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Petaluma include Irish, German, English, Italian, French, and Scottish.

The most common language spoken in Petaluma is English. Some people also speak Spanish.