One thing noticeable about Philadelphia, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That’s because Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia 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, Philadelphia is one of the top larger cities in America for educated single professionals to flock.
In Philadelphia, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 33.26 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.
One of the benefits of being a big city like Philadelphia is having a public transportation system, but in Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia benefits from a reduction in air pollution and traffic.
In terms of college education, Philadelphia 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: 32.52% of adults in Philadelphia have a college degree.
The per capita income in Philadelphia in 2018 was $32,344, which is middle income relative to Pennsylvania, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $129,376 for a family of four. However, Philadelphia contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Philadelphia is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Philadelphia home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Philadelphia residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Philadelphia also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 15.40% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Philadelphia include Irish, Italian, German, Polish, and English.
The most common language spoken in Philadelphia is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
