Cranston is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Rhode Island. With a population of 82,421 people and 17 associated neighborhoods, Cranston is the second largest community in Rhode Island.

Also of interest is that Cranston 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: 8.19% 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.

Cranston 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. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

In terms of college education, Cranston is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 21.84% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 33.97% of adults in Cranston have a college degree.

The per capita income in Cranston in 2022 was $41,572, which is lower middle income relative to Rhode Island, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $166,288 for a family of four. However, Cranston contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Cranston is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Cranston home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Cranston residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Cranston also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 18.29% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Cranston include Italian, Irish, English, French, and Portuguese.

Foreign born people are also an important part of Cranston's cultural character, accounting for 15.47% of the city’s population.

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