Boston is a very large coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 589,141 people and 165 constituent neighborhoods, Boston is the largest community in Massachusetts. Boston has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Boston is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 86.72% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Boston is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Boston who work in office and administrative support jobs (16.17%), management occupations (9.89%), and sales jobs (9.44%).

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

In addition, Boston is a major college town. As is often the case in college towns, the many students that live in Boston have a strong influence on the local culture and music scene. In fact, Boston is one of only a few big cities that are also major college towns. This combination of big city status and thousands of college students gives Boston, on one hand, a sophisticated style, while on the other also providing lots of diversions and entertainment for students. In fact, Boston is one of the biggest "college towns" in America. This elevates both the status of the city and the knowledge sector of the local economy, which is sustained by a steady output of new college graduates every spring.

Not only is Boston 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. This makes it a good place to live for young singles in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting their professional careers. Although Boston is a large city, this demographic is significant enough that young professionals will find many others like themselves here, with really good opportunities for friendships, recreation, romance, and more.

One of the nice things about Boston is that is it nautical, meaning that parts of the city are somewhat historic and on the ocean, or touch tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

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

Boston Information and Demographics

The citizens of Boston are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 35.56% of adults in Boston have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Boston in 2000 was $23,353, which is lower middle income relative to Massachusetts, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $93,412 for a family of four.

Boston is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Boston home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Boston is White, followed by African-American. Boston also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.46% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Boston include Irish, Italian, Haitian, English, and German.

Boston also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 25.77%.

The languages spoken by people in Boston 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 Boston is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, French Creole, Chinese, and Portuguese.