Colton is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of California. With a population of 54,285 people and 15 constituent neighborhoods, Colton is the 169th largest community in California.

Housing costs in Colton 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.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 9.60% 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.

The percentage of adults in Colton who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 17.82% of the adults in Colton have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.

The per capita income in Colton in 2018 was $23,172, which is lower middle income relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $92,688 for a family of four. However, Colton contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Colton is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Colton 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 Colton, accounting for 71.28% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Colton residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Colton include Irish, German, English, French, and Italian.

Colton also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 20.33%.

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