Portland is a larger medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Maine. With a population of 64,257 people and 23 constituent neighborhoods, Portland is the largest community in Maine. Portland has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Unlike some cities, Portland isn't mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Portland are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Portland is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Portland who work in office and administrative support jobs (16.40%), sales jobs (12.10%), and management occupations (9.05%).

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

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

Another interesting thing about Portland, despite not being a huge city, is that there is a relatively high proportion of people living here who are young, single, and upwardly-mobile professionals. This makes it a good choice for other relocating single professionals. Here, these young singles will find many others like themselves, with opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

One of the nice things about Portland 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.

Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 18.70 minutes getting to work every day.

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Portland is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. The bus helps to get a lot of people to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Portland area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

Portland Information and Demographics

The population of Portland is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 14.96% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 36.41% of adults in Portland have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Portland in 2000 was $22,698, which is wealthy relative to Maine, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $90,792 for a family of four.

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

The most common language spoken in Portland is English.