Long Beach is a large coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 451,307 people and 111 associated neighborhoods, Long Beach is the seventh largest community in California.

Housing costs in Long Beach are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in California.

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

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

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 12.49% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

Long Beach is one of the most attractive larger cities for people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. 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 Long Beach 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.

Long Beach is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.

One downside of living in Long Beach is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Long Beach, the average commute to work is 30.92 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.

One of the benefits of being a big city like Long Beach is having a public transportation system, but in Long Beach the transit system is the mode of choice for lots of people getting to and from work every day. You will find many people using the bus for their daily commute, even though other transportation options exist. If you ask these commuters, many will tell you that not having to drive in the snarl of big city traffic is one of main reasons for leaving the car at home, or even not owning a car at all. With so many people taking the bus Long Beach benefits from a reduction in air pollution and traffic.

The education level of Long Beach citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 33.65% of adults in Long Beach have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Long Beach in 2022 was $39,589, which is middle income relative to California, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $158,356 for a family of four. However, Long Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Long Beach is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Long Beach home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Long Beach, accounting for 44.07% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Long Beach residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Long Beach include German, Irish, English, Italian, and French.

In addition, Long Beach has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (24.60%).

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