Sarasota is a larger medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Florida. With a population of 52,537 people and 25 constituent neighborhoods, Sarasota is the 47th largest community in Florida.

Unlike some cities, Sarasota isn't mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Sarasota are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Sarasota is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Sarasota who work in sales jobs (13.30%), office and administrative support jobs (13.25%), and food service (8.82%).

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

One of the nice things about Sarasota 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.

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Sarasota 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 Sarasota area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

Sarasota Information and Demographics

In terms of college education, Sarasota is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 14.96% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 25.68% of adults in Sarasota have a college degree.

The per capita income in Sarasota in 2000 was $23,197, which is upper middle income relative to Florida and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $92,788 for a family of four.

Sarasota is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Sarasota home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Sarasota is White, followed by African-American. Sarasota also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.16% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Sarasota include German, English, Irish, Italian, Polish, and French.

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