Portsmouth is a medium-sized city located in the state of Ohio. With a population of 17,587 people and seven associated neighborhoods, Portsmouth is the 102nd largest community in Ohio. Portsmouth has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.

One of the benefits of Portsmouth is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 18.99 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.

Being a small city, Portsmouth does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

In terms of college education, the citizens of Portsmouth rank slightly lower than the national average. 16.65% of adults 25 and older in Portsmouth have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, while 21.84% of adults have a 4-year degree or higher in the average American community.

The per capita income in Portsmouth in 2022 was $22,022, which is low income relative to Ohio and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $88,088 for a family of four. However, Portsmouth contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Portsmouth also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 35.44% of its population below the federal poverty line.

Portsmouth is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Portsmouth home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Portsmouth residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Portsmouth include German, English, Irish, Scots-Irish, and Italian.

The most common language spoken in Portsmouth is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.