Columbia is a larger medium-sized town located in the state of Maryland. With a population of 88,391 people and ten constituent neighborhoods, Columbia is the second largest community in Maryland.

Columbia is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 93.47% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Columbia is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Columbia who work in management occupations (14.43%), office and administrative support jobs (11.26%), and sales jobs (10.68%).

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

One thing noticeable about Columbia, although not a huge town, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That's because Columbia is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Columbia a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Columbia is also home to many people who can 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.

Because of many things, Columbia is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Columbia really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Columbia perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

Columbia has quite a few people who use public transportation to get to work each day, primarily riding the bus.

Columbia Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Columbia. 59.03% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 14.96%.

The per capita income in Columbia in 2000 was $32,833, which is wealthy relative to Maryland and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $131,332 for a family of four. However, Columbia contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Columbia is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Columbia home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Columbia is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Columbia include German, English, Irish, Italian, Polish, and Russian.

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