Portland is a very large coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Oregon. With a population of 529,025 people and 157 constituent neighborhoods, Portland is the largest community in Oregon.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Portland is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce 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 (15.51%), sales jobs (11.02%), and management occupations (8.86%).

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.

Portland is one of the most attractive larger cities for people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. This makes it a good place to live for young singles in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting their professional careers. Although Portland is a large city, this demographic is significant enough that young professionals will find many others like themselves here, with really good opportunities for friendships, recreation, romance, and more.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of Portland 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.

Portland Information and Demographics

The citizens of Portland are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 32.62% of adults in Portland have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Portland in 2000 was $22,643, which is wealthy relative to Oregon, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $90,572 for a family of four.

Portland is a very ethnically-diverse city. 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 African-American. Important ancestries of people in Portland include German, Irish, English, Norwegian, Italian, Swedish, and European.

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