Manhattan Beach is a medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of California. With a population of 34,039 people and eight constituent neighborhoods, Manhattan Beach is the 217th largest community in California.

Manhattan Beach is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 95.02% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Manhattan Beach is a city of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Manhattan Beach who work in management occupations (20.43%), sales jobs (14.75%), and office and administrative support jobs (9.63%).

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

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

Manhattan Beach, 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, Manhattan Beach 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.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of Manhattan Beach are somewhat historic and bounded by the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

One notable thing about Manhattan Beach is that if you need to go anywhere, you're going to have to drive. This is because Manhattan Beach 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: 97.2% 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.

Manhattan Beach Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Manhattan Beach. 67.60% 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 Manhattan Beach in 2000 was $61,136, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $244,544 for a family of four. However, Manhattan Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Manhattan Beach home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Manhattan Beach is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Manhattan Beach include German, English, Irish, Italian, Russian, Polish, and Swedish.

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