San Francisco is a very large coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of California. With a population of 776,733 people and 151 constituent neighborhoods, San Francisco is the fourth largest community in California. Much of the housing stock in San Francisco was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

San Francisco is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 88.23% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, San Francisco is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in San Francisco who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.37%), management occupations (12.72%), and sales jobs (11.18%).

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

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

In addition, San Francisco is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on the local San Francisco culture, lifestyle and music scene. In fact, San Francisco is one of only a few big cities that are also major college towns. The combination of big city status and thousands of college students gives San Francisco, on one hand, a sophisticated style, while on the other also provides a youthful feel and lots of diversions and entertainment for students. Believe it or not, San Francisco is one of the biggest "college towns" in America, generating lift to the economy of the entire region, and issuing forth thousands of newly-minted college students every spring, powering the innovation economy, the arts, and a lively club scene.

Not only is San Francisco a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a very large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. That's because San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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, San Francisco is one of the top larger cities in America for educated single professionals to flock.

In addition to being popular with young singles, San Francisco is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of San Francisco are somewhat historic and bounded by the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

One downside of living in San Francisco is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In San Francisco, the average commute to work is 30.71 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 San Francisco's neighborhoods are dense enough and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.

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

San Francisco Information and Demographics

The citizens of San Francisco are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 44.98% of adults in San Francisco have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in San Francisco in 2000 was $34,556, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $138,224 for a family of four.

San Francisco is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call San Francisco home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in San Francisco is White, followed by Asian. San Francisco also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.11% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in San Francisco include Irish, German, Italian, English, and Russian.

In addition, San Francisco has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (36.76%).

The languages spoken by people in San Francisco are also diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in San Francisco is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, and Russian.