Alexandria is a larger medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Virginia. With a population of 128,283 people and 46 constituent neighborhoods, Alexandria is the eighth largest community in Virginia.

Alexandria is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 89.36% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Alexandria is a city of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Alexandria who work in management occupations (15.09%), office and administrative support jobs (13.10%), and business and financial occupations (8.65%).

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

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

One thing that you will notice about Alexandria is that there is a good-sized population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. Many singles consider Alexandria a good place to live without being in a really big city, with opportunities for friendships and fun with others like themselves.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Alexandria is also home to many people who can 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.

One of the nice things about Alexandria 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, Alexandria is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. The subway helps to get a lot of people to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Alexandria area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

Alexandria Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Alexandria, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Alexandria is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 54.30% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 14.96%.

The per capita income in Alexandria in 2000 was $37,645, which is wealthy relative to Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $150,580 for a family of four.

Alexandria is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Alexandria home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Alexandria is White, followed by African-American. Alexandria also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.61% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Alexandria include Irish, English, German, Italian, and Ethiopian.

Foreign born people are also an important part of Alexandria's cultural character, accounting for 25.41% of the city's population.

The most common language spoken in Alexandria is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African.