Long Beach is a large coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 451,307 people and 111 constituent neighborhoods, Long Beach is the seventh largest community in California.
Housing costs in Long Beach are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in California.
Of important note, Long Beach is also a city of artists. Long Beach has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Long Beach’s character.
Also of interest is that Long Beach has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 10.60% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
One thing noticeable about Long Beach, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That’s because Long Beach is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Long Beach a great place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun. In fact, Long Beach is one of the top larger cities in America for educated single professionals to flock.
Long Beach is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.
One downside of living in Long Beach, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 31.24 minutes every day commuting to work. However, local public transit is widely used. For those who would prefer to avoid driving entirely and leave their car at home, it may be an option to use the transit instead.
One of the benefits of being a big city like Long Beach is having a public transportation system, but in Long Beach the transit system is the mode of choice for lots of people getting to and from work every day. You will find many people using the bus for their daily commute, even though other transportation options exist. If you ask these commuters, many will tell you that not having to drive in the snarl of big city traffic is one of main reasons for leaving the car at home, or even not owning a car at all. With so many people taking the bus Long Beach benefits from a reduction in air pollution and traffic.
In terms of college education, Long Beach is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 21.84% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 32.82% of adults in Long Beach have a college degree.
The per capita income in Long Beach in 2018 was $35,856, which is middle income relative to California, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $143,424 for a family of four. However, Long Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Long Beach is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Long Beach home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Long Beach, accounting for 43.86% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Long Beach residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Long Beach include German, Irish, English, Italian, and European.
Long Beach also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 25.10%.
The most common language spoken in Long Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.