Portsmouth is a somewhat small coastal town (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Rhode Island. With a population of 17,149 people and three constituent neighborhoods, Portsmouth is the 21st largest community in Rhode Island.

Portsmouth is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 85.25% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Portsmouth is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Portsmouth who work in office and administrative support jobs (12.13%), sales jobs (10.66%), and management occupations (10.44%).

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

There are many members of the armed forces living in Portsmouth. You will notice when you visit or live here that some of the people you meet or see around town are employed by the armed services - even if they are not always in uniform.

In addition, Portsmouth 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.

Because of many things, Portsmouth is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Portsmouth really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Portsmouth perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

The town is also nautical, which means that parts of Portsmouth 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.

Being a small town, Portsmouth does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Portsmouth Information and Demographics

The population of Portsmouth is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 14.96% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 42.89% of adults in Portsmouth have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Portsmouth in 2000 was $28,161, which is upper middle income relative to Rhode Island, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $112,644 for a family of four.

The people who call Portsmouth home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Portsmouth is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Portsmouth include Irish, Portuguese, English, Italian, German, French, Polish, and French Canadian.

The most common language spoken in Portsmouth is English.