Portland is a very large city located in the state of Oregon. With a population of 630,498 people and 188 associated neighborhoods, Portland is the largest community in Oregon. Portland home prices are not only among the most expensive in Oregon, but Portland real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.Portland is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 85.75% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Portland is a city of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Portland who work in management occupations (13.18%), office and administrative support (9.20%), and sales jobs (8.09%). Of important note, Portland is also a city of artists. Portland has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Portland’s character. Also of interest is that Portland has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 22.04% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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. Portland is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Portland really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Portland citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Portland 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 Portland a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the bus.If knowledge is power, Portland is a pretty powerful place. 52.55% of the adults in Portland have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns. The per capita income in Portland in 2022 was $52,577, which is wealthy relative to Oregon and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $210,308 for a family of four. However, Portland contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Portland is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Portland home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Portland residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Portland also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.27% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Portland include German, English, Irish, Italian, and European. The most common language spoken in Portland is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Vietnamese.
