San Francisco is a very large coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of California. With a population of 776,733 people and 151 constituent neighborhoods, San Francisco is the fourth largest community in California. San Francisco has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

San Francisco is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 88.23% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, San Francisco is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in San Francisco who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.37%), management occupations (12.72%), and sales jobs (11.18%).

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

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

In addition, San Francisco also has a very large population of students, making it a major college town. As is often the case, having so many students around has a strong influence on the local culture. In fact, San Francisco is one of only a few big cities that are also major college towns, making it one of the nation's prominent intellectual centers. In addition, the presence of thousands of college students gives San Francisco a sophisticated style, and provides lots of diversions and entertainment for students. Being a big "college town" not only means that San Francisco has a burgeoning arts, music, and nightclub scene, but the innovation sector of the local economy receives a great boost from both the intellectual output of the faculty and the thousands of enthusiastic students who graduate every spring.

Not only is San Francisco a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a very large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. This makes it a good place to live for young singles in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting their professional careers. Although San Francisco is a large city, this demographic is significant enough that young professionals will find many others like themselves here, with really good opportunities for friendships, recreation, romance, and more.

In addition to being popular with young singles, San Francisco 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.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of San Francisco are somewhat historic and bounded by the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

One downside of living in San Francisco, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 30.71 minutes every day commuting to work. It is, however, a pedestrian-friendly city. Many of its neighborhoods are dense enough and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot. In addition, local public transit is widely used. For those who would prefer to avoid driving entirely and leave their car at home, it may be an option to use the transit instead.

One of the benefits of being a big city like San Francisco is having a public transportation system, but in San Francisco the transit system is the mode of choice for lots of people getting to and from work every day. You will find many people using the bus for their daily commute, even though other transportation options exist. If you ask these commuters, many will tell you that not having to drive in the snarl of big city traffic is one of main reasons for leaving the car at home, or even not owning a car at all. With so many people taking the bus, San Francisco benefits from a reduction in air pollution and traffic.

San Francisco Information and Demographics

The citizens of San Francisco are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 44.98% of adults in San Francisco have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in San Francisco in 2000 was $34,556, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $138,224 for a family of four.

San Francisco is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call San Francisco home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in San Francisco is White, followed by Asian. San Francisco also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.11% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in San Francisco include Irish, German, Italian, English, and Russian.

San Francisco also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 36.76%.

The languages spoken by people in San Francisco 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 San Francisco is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, and Russian.