Surprise is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Arizona. With a population of 154,198 people and 28 associated neighborhoods, Surprise is the tenth largest community in Arizona. Much of the housing stock in Surprise was built relatively recently. The construction of new real estate can often be taken as an indication that the local Surprise economy is robust, and that jobs or other amenities are attracting an influx of new residents. This seems to be the case in Surprise, where the median household income is $87,756.00.

Surprise real estate is some of the most expensive in Arizona, although Surprise house values don't compare to the most expensive real estate in the U.S.

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

A relatively large number of people in Surprise telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 14.78% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.

One downside of living in Surprise, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 30.80 minutes every day commuting to work.

The overall education level of Surprise citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 30.99% of adults in Surprise have at least a bachelor's degree, and the average American community has 21.84%.

The per capita income in Surprise in 2022 was $37,518, which is upper middle income relative to Arizona and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $150,072 for a family of four. However, Surprise contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Surprise is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Surprise home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Surprise residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Surprise also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 20.91% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Surprise include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Polish.

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