Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia 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.
In Philadelphia, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.55 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. In addition, the city is also quite pedestrian-friendly, because many neighborhoods are very dense and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.
Philadelphia is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Philadelphia really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Philadelphia citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Philadelphia ride the bus. Whereas in some cities one is destined to sit in traffic every morning to get to work and every evening to get home, in Philadelphia a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the bus.
The education level of Philadelphia citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 34.64% of adults in Philadelphia have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Philadelphia in 2022 was $37,669, which is upper middle income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $150,676 for a family of four. However, Philadelphia contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Philadelphia is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Philadelphia home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Philadelphia residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Philadelphia also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 15.20% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Philadelphia include Irish, German, Italian, English, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Philadelphia is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
