Cape Elizabeth is a somewhat small coastal town (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Maine. With a population of 9,068 people and two constituent neighborhoods, Cape Elizabeth is the 40th largest community in Maine.

Cape Elizabeth is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 91.77% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Cape Elizabeth is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Cape Elizabeth who work in management occupations (15.96%), office and administrative support jobs (14.92%), and sales jobs (12.03%).

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

A relatively large number of people in Cape Elizabeth telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 9.14% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.

In addition, Cape Elizabeth is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." 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.

Because of many things, Cape Elizabeth 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, Cape Elizabeth really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Cape Elizabeth 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.

One of the nice things about Cape Elizabeth is that is it nautical, meaning that parts of the town 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.

Residents of the town have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 18.78 minutes getting to work every day.

Cape Elizabeth is a very car-oriented town. 97.13% of residents commute to work in a private automobile rather than by other means, such as public transit, bicycling, or walking. This is because Cape Elizabeth is a small town, and most people who live here have to drive out of town for work, and the town population is not large nor dense enough to support an extensive public transportation system. Cape Elizabeth has a lot of rural roads, and houses can be far apart. Many residents drive out of town for regular shopping trips as well.

Cape Elizabeth Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Cape Elizabeth is a pretty powerful place. 58.69% of the adults in Cape Elizabeth 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 Cape Elizabeth in 2000 was $37,983, which is wealthy relative to Maine and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $151,932 for a family of four. However, Cape Elizabeth contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Cape Elizabeth home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Cape Elizabeth is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Cape Elizabeth include English, Irish, Italian, German, Scottish, French, Scotch-Irish, French Canadian, and Polish.

The most common language spoken in Cape Elizabeth is English.