Santa Monica 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 84,084 people and 19 constituent neighborhoods, Santa Monica is the 76th largest community in California.

Santa Monica is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 93.00% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Santa Monica is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Santa Monica who work in management occupations (14.74%), art, media and design (13.29%), and sales jobs (11.67%).

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

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

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.97% 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.

One thing that you will notice about Santa Monica is that there is a good-sized population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. Many singles consider Santa Monica a good place to live without being in a really big city, with opportunities for friendships and fun with others like themselves.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Santa Monica 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.

One of the nice things about Santa Monica 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.

Santa Monica Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Santa Monica is a pretty powerful place. 54.80% of the adults in Santa Monica 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 Santa Monica in 2000 was $42,874, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $171,496 for a family of four.

Santa Monica is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Santa Monica home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Santa Monica is White, followed by Asian. Santa Monica also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 13.50% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Santa Monica include English, German, Irish, Russian, Italian, Iranian, and Polish.

Santa Monica also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 24.85%.

The most common language spoken in Santa Monica is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Persian.