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 449,468 people and 111 associated 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.

A relatively large number of people in Long Beach telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 14.39% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.

Long Beach is a popular destination for single career-starters. One thing that you will notice when you are out and about town is that there is a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters out at restaurants, listening to live music, and enjoying other activities. They are a real visible part of the culture of Long Beach. This makes Long Beach a good place to live for young professionals. With so many people in this demographic, Long Beach presents many opportunities for single professionals to enjoy themselves, socialize, and to create lasting relationships.

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 30.75 minutes every day commuting to work.

The education level of Long Beach citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 34.84% of adults in Long Beach have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Long Beach in 2022 was $42,370, 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 $169,480 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 43.42% 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 Polish.

Foreign born people are also an important part of Long Beach's cultural character, accounting for 24.69% of the city’s population.

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