Portage is a medium-sized city located in the state of Indiana. With a population of 33,548 people and two constituent neighborhoods, Portage is the 22nd largest community in Indiana.

Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Portage is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 39.0% of the Portage workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 24.7%. Overall, Portage is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and construction workers and builders. There are especially a lot of people living in Portage who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.15%), sales jobs (9.34%), and food service (5.98%).

One notable thing about Portage is that if you need to go anywhere, you're going to have to drive. This is because Portage is primarily built for cars, and if you drive around you will notice that there are lots of shopping centers, parking lots, strip malls, and wide streets. Commuting to work is done by car: 97.4% of people use private automobiles to get to and from work. Sidewalks? Not so much. In fact, trying to walk in certain parts of town may be a dangerous enterprise.

Portage Information and Demographics

The rate of college-level education in Portage is quite a bit lower than the national average among all cities of 14.96%: just 10.06% of people here over 25 have a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree.

The per capita income in Portage in 2000 was $20,146, which is upper middle income relative to Indiana and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $80,584 for a family of four.

The people who call Portage home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Portage is White, followed by African-American. Portage also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.41% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Portage include German, Irish, Polish, English, and Italian.

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