Riverside is a large city located in the state of California. With a population of 320,764 people and 80 associated neighborhoods, Riverside is the 12th largest community in California.

Housing costs in Riverside 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.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 8.13% 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, Riverside is a major college town. As is often the case in college towns, the many students that live in Riverside have a strong influence on the local culture and music scene. In fact, Riverside is one of only a few big cities that are also major college towns. This combination of big city status and thousands of college students gives Riverside, on one hand, a sophisticated style, while on the other also providing lots of diversions and entertainment for students. In fact, Riverside is one of the biggest "college towns" in America. This elevates both the status of the city and the knowledge sector of the local economy, which is sustained by a steady output of new college graduates every spring.

Not only is Riverside a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a very large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. That’s because Riverside is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Riverside a great place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun. In fact, Riverside is one of the top larger cities in America for educated single professionals to flock.

One downside of living in Riverside is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Riverside, the average commute to work is 30.98 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

The education level of Riverside citizens is a little higher than the average for US cities and towns: 24.42% of adults in Riverside have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Riverside in 2022 was $31,632, which is lower middle income relative to California, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $126,528 for a family of four. However, Riverside contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Riverside is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Riverside 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 Riverside, accounting for 55.36% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Riverside residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Riverside include German, Irish, English, Italian, and European.

Foreign born people are also an important part of Riverside's cultural character, accounting for 22.23% of the city’s population.

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