Lake Oswego is a medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Oregon. With a population of 35,222 people and six constituent neighborhoods, Lake Oswego is the 14th largest community in Oregon.

Lake Oswego is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 92.76% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Lake Oswego is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Lake Oswego who work in management occupations (18.58%), sales jobs (17.90%), and office and administrative support jobs (10.71%).

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

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

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.27% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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.

Lake Oswego, while not large, also appears to be attractive to some younger, educated professionals, who help shape the character of the city.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Lake Oswego 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.

One of the nice things about Lake Oswego 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.

Lake Oswego is a decent-sized city, yet no one gets to work using public transit, because the city has no real transit system.

Lake Oswego Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Lake Oswego. 62.01% 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 Lake Oswego in 2000 was $42,166, which is wealthy relative to Oregon and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $168,664 for a family of four. However, Lake Oswego contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Lake Oswego home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Lake Oswego is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Lake Oswego include German, English, Irish, Norwegian, Italian, Scottish, Swedish, and European.

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