Providence is a relatively large coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Rhode Island. With a population of 173,618 people and 37 constituent neighborhoods, Providence is the largest community in Rhode Island. Providence has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Providence is neither predominently blue-collar or white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Providence is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Providence who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.78%), sales jobs (8.91%), and teaching (8.33%).

Combining city textures and college town sensibilities, Providence really has a nice blend of characteristics. While not a huge city, Providence is big enough to offer a healthy dose of diversion, opportunity, and amenity to its residents and to the thousands of college students who descend on it every fall. Its size and diversity makes Providence more than just a college town, but removing the students from the equation would undeniably change Providence's character and quality of life.

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

Providence Information and Demographics

In terms of college education, Providence 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: 24.39% of adults in Providence have a college degree.

The per capita income in Providence in 2000 was $15,525, which is low income relative to Rhode Island, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $62,100 for a family of four.

Providence is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Providence home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Providence is White, followed by African-American. Providence also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 29.98% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Providence include Italian, Irish, Portuguese, English, French, and German.

Providence also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 25.31%.

The languages spoken by people in Providence are also diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in Providence is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Mon-Khmer, Cambodian, and Portuguese.