San Luis Obispo is a medium-sized city located in the state of California. With a population of 49,244 people and 15 associated neighborhoods, San Luis Obispo is the 197th largest community in California.

Housing costs in San Luis Obispo 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.

Also of interest is that San Luis Obispo 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: 14.02% 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.

San Luis Obispo is also a major college town with a large number of people who are 18 years or older and attending college. As is often the case in college towns, the many students that live in San Luis Obispo have a strong influence on the local culture and entertainment scene, which may seem dormant by comparison in the summer months when much of the student population is away. In the fall, the return of students has a reinvigorating effect on the community. Because colleges are lasting institutions, they have a stabilizing effect on the economy by providing direct local benefits such as jobs for faculty and staff and spending by students. San Luis Obispo’s economy is one such example of this.

San Luis Obispo, while not large, also appears to be attractive to some younger, educated professionals, who help shape the character of the city.

Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of San Luis Obispo spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 16.36 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in San Luis Obispo. 52.77% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.

The per capita income in San Luis Obispo in 2022 was $41,749, 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 $166,996 for a family of four. However, San Luis Obispo contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. San Luis Obispo also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 31.47% of its population below the federal poverty line.

San Luis Obispo is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call San Luis Obispo home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of San Luis Obispo residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. San Luis Obispo also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 17.93% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in San Luis Obispo include German, English, Irish, Italian, and European.

The most common language spoken in San Luis Obispo is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.