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Philadelphia, PA
Real Estate & Demographic Data






Philadelphia profile


Living in Philadelphia


Philadelphia is a very large city located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 1,576,251 people and 409 constituent neighborhoods, Philadelphia is the largest community in Pennsylvania. Much of the housing stock in Philadelphia was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Philadelphia is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Philadelphia is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Philadelphia who work in office and administrative support (11.38%), management occupations (8.75%), and sales jobs (8.05%).

Also of interest is that Philadelphia has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia. This makes Philadelphia a good place to live for young professionals. With so many people in this demographic, Philadelphia presents many opportunities for single professionals to enjoy themselves, socialize, and to create lasting relationships.

One downside of living in Philadelphia is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Philadelphia, the average commute to work is 33.48 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the city, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative. In addition, it is also a pedestrian-friendly city. Many of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods are dense enough and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.

Philadelphia is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Philadelphia really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Philadelphia citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Philadelphia ride the bus. Whereas in some cities one is destined to sit in traffic every morning to get to work and every evening to get home, in Philadelphia a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the bus.

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: 31.23% of adults in Philadelphia have a college degree.

The per capita income in Philadelphia in 2018 was $29,644, which is middle income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $118,576 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 15.06% 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.