Petaluma is a larger medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of California. With a population of 54,538 people and ten constituent neighborhoods, Petaluma is the 144th largest community in California.

Petaluma is neither predominently blue-collar or white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Petaluma is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Petaluma who work in office and administrative support jobs (16.21%), sales jobs (11.77%), and management occupations (10.74%).

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

In addition, Petaluma is home to many people who could 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 Petaluma are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.

One downside of living in Petaluma is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Petaluma, the average commute to work is 33.80 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

Petaluma Information and Demographics

The education level of Petaluma citizens is substantially higher than the average US city or town, as 30.11% of adults in Petaluma have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Petaluma in 2000 was $27,087, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $108,348 for a family of four.

Petaluma is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Petaluma home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Petaluma is White, followed by Asian. Petaluma also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 15.23% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Petaluma include Irish, German, English, Italian, French, and Scottish.

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