La Mesa is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of California. With a population of 60,537 people and 16 associated neighborhoods, La Mesa is the 151st largest community in California. Housing costs in La Mesa 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.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, La Mesa is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, La Mesa is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in La Mesa who work in management occupations (11.52%), office and administrative support (10.84%), and sales jobs (8.69%). There are many members of the armed forces living in La Mesa. You will notice when you visit or live here that some of the people you meet or see around town are employed by the armed services - even if they are not always in uniform. Also of interest is that La Mesa has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 14.94% 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. The citizens of La Mesa are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 38.40% of adults in La Mesa have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree. The per capita income in La Mesa in 2022 was $46,783, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $187,132 for a family of four. However, La Mesa contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. La Mesa is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call La Mesa home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of La Mesa residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. La Mesa also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 27.89% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in La Mesa include English, Irish, German, Italian, and Scottish. The most common language spoken in La Mesa is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.
