Columbia is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of South Carolina. With a population of 139,698 people and 85 associated neighborhoods, Columbia is the second largest community in South Carolina.The armed forces are a huge part of the life in Columbia, employing 8.85% of the workforce. While it is a military town, the civilian sector still plays an important role in the local economy, where the Education and Healthcare industries employ 13.63% and 12.72% of the civilian workforce, respectively. Also of interest is that Columbia 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: 8.30% 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. Columbia is made interesting by being both a reasonably big city and having a major college student population: students here will find that the city provides a lot of amenities, culture, and opportunities for them. Columbia is more than just a college town, however, though the thousands of students certainly are a major part of the character of the city, as well as a contributor to the local economy. One of the benefits of Columbia is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 19.18 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.Columbia is one of the most well-educated cities in the nation. 44.79% of adults in Columbia have at least a bachelor's degree. Compare that to the average community in America, which has just 21.84% with a bachelor's degree or higher. The per capita income in Columbia in 2022 was $36,422, which is upper middle income relative to South Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $145,688 for a family of four. However, Columbia contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Columbia is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Columbia home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Columbia residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Columbia include German, English, Irish, Italian, and African. The most common language spoken in Columbia is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Langs. of India.
