Royal Oak is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 60,062 people and 18 constituent neighborhoods, Royal Oak is the 26th largest community in Michigan.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Royal Oak is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Royal Oak is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Royal Oak who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.28%), sales jobs (11.88%), and management occupations (10.75%).

Of important note, Royal Oak is also a city of artists. Royal Oak has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Royal Oak's character.

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

One thing noticeable about Royal Oak, although not a huge city, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That's because Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Royal Oak is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates," which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.

Royal Oak is a very car-oriented city: 96.5% of people use private automobiles to get to and from work. In fact, the general consensus among people in Royal Oak is that if you need to get anywhere, you're going to have to drive. The landscape is very car-oriented, and features shopping centers, strip malls, parking lots, and wide streets. Pedestrians are discouraged by the fact that sidewalks are not always present, which makes attempts at walking downright daunting in certain parts of town.

Royal Oak Information and Demographics

The population of Royal Oak is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 14.96% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 39.90% of adults in Royal Oak have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Royal Oak in 2000 was $30,990, which is wealthy relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $123,960 for a family of four.

The people who call Royal Oak home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Royal Oak is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Royal Oak include German, Irish, English, Polish, Italian, Scottish, and French.

The most common language spoken in Royal Oak is English.