Torrance 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 137,933 people and 29 constituent neighborhoods, Torrance is the 31st largest community in California.

Torrance is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 85.84% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Torrance is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Torrance who work in office and administrative support jobs (17.07%), management occupations (13.41%), and sales jobs (12.95%).

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

One thing that you will notice about Torrance is that there is a good-sized population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. Many singles consider Torrance 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, Torrance is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates." While both of these categories describe educated professionals, urban sophisticates are quite a different demographic. 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.

One of the nice things about Torrance 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.

Torrance Information and Demographics

The education level of Torrance citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (14.96%): 36.42% of adults in Torrance have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Torrance in 2000 was $28,144, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $112,576 for a family of four.

Torrance is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Torrance home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Torrance is White, followed by Asian. Torrance also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.88% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Torrance include German, English, Irish, and Italian.

Torrance also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 27.60%.

The languages spoken by people in Torrance 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 Torrance is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.