Palos Verdes Estates is a medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 12,646 people and four associated neighborhoods, Palos Verdes Estates is the 373rd largest community in California.

Palos Verdes Estates home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but Palos Verdes Estates real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 24.82% 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.

In addition, Palos Verdes Estates is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

Because of many things, Palos Verdes Estates is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Palos Verdes Estates really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Palos Verdes Estates perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

One of the nice things about Palos Verdes Estates 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.

In Palos Verdes Estates, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.03 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

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

If knowledge is power, Palos Verdes Estates is a pretty powerful place. 78.46% of the adults in Palos Verdes Estates 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 Palos Verdes Estates in 2022 was $142,117, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $568,468 for a family of four.

Palos Verdes Estates is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Palos Verdes Estates home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Palos Verdes Estates residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Palos Verdes Estates include Irish, German, English, Italian, and Polish.

Foreign born people are also an important part of Palos Verdes Estates's cultural character, accounting for 21.07% of the city’s population.

The most common language spoken in Palos Verdes Estates is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Japanese.