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 451,307 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.Unlike some cities, Long Beach isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Long Beach are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Long Beach is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Long Beach who work in office and administrative support (11.80%), management occupations (9.91%), and sales jobs (9.68%). 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. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 12.49% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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. One of the nice things about Long Beach is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities. In Long Beach, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 30.92 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. Long Beach is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Long Beach really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Long Beach citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Long Beach 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 Long Beach a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the bus.The education level of Long Beach citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 33.65% of adults in Long Beach have at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Long Beach in 2022 was $39,589, 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 $158,356 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 44.07% 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 French. Foreign born people are also an important part of Long Beach's cultural character, accounting for 24.60% of the city’s population. The most common language spoken in Long Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.
