Winthrop is a medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 18,510 people and five associated neighborhoods, Winthrop is the 100th largest community in Massachusetts. Much of the housing stock in Winthrop was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Housing costs in Winthrop 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 Massachusetts.

Also of interest is that Winthrop 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: 12.91% 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.

Winthrop 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.

In Winthrop, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 34.41 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. In addition, the city is also quite pedestrian-friendly, because many neighborhoods are very dense and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.

Even though Winthrop is a smaller city, it has many people who hop on public transportation – mostly the subway for their daily commute to work. Typically, these people are commuting to good jobs in the surrounding cities.

The citizens of Winthrop are among the most well-educated in the nation: 43.70% of adults in Winthrop have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Winthrop in 2018 was $57,278, which is upper middle income relative to Massachusetts, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $229,112 for a family of four. However, Winthrop contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Winthrop is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Winthrop home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Winthrop residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Winthrop also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 18.20% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Winthrop include Italian, Irish, English, German, and Albanian.

In addition, Winthrop has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (18.67%).

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