Portsmouth is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Virginia. With a population of 94,398 people and 31 constituent neighborhoods, Portsmouth is the 11th largest community in Virginia.
Portsmouth is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Portsmouth is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Portsmouth who work in office and administrative support (13.06%), sales jobs (10.45%), and management occupations (6.14%).
There are quite a few people in the armed forces living in Portsmouth, and when you visit or drive around town, you will see military people in and out of uniform, shopping, enjoying life, and being part of the community.
One of the nice things about Portsmouth is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
The education level of Portsmouth citizens is a little higher than the average for US cities and towns: 21.89% of adults in Portsmouth have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Portsmouth in 2018 was $26,312, which is middle income relative to Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $105,248 for a family of four. However, Portsmouth contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Portsmouth is an extremely 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 Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Portsmouth include African, English, German, Irish, and Italian.
The most common language spoken in Portsmouth is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.