Burien is a medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Washington. With a population of 31,744 people and five constituent neighborhoods, Burien is the 29th largest community in Washington.

Burien is neither predominently blue-collar or white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Burien is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Burien who work in office and administrative support jobs (17.36%), sales jobs (10.57%), and management occupations (8.15%).

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

In addition, Burien 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.

One of the nice things about Burien 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.

Burien Information and Demographics

In terms of college education, Burien is somewhat better educated than the 14.96% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 21.24% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Burien in 2000 was $23,737, which is upper middle income relative to Washington and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $94,948 for a family of four.

Burien is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Burien home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Burien is White, followed by Asian. Burien also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.77% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Burien include German, English, Irish, Norwegian, Italian, and Swedish.

Burien also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 15.25%.

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