San Rafael is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 59,971 people and 16 associated neighborhoods, San Rafael is the 150th largest community in California.

San Rafael home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but San Rafael real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Of important note, San Rafael is also a city of artists. San Rafael has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape San Rafael’s character.

Also of interest is that San Rafael 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: 22.60% 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.

One thing noticeable about San Rafael, although not a huge city, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That’s because San Rafael is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes San Rafael a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

San Rafael 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.

For the size of the city, public transportation in San Rafael is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the bus. For San Rafael, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.

The citizens of San Rafael are among the most well-educated in the nation: 49.63% of adults in San Rafael have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in San Rafael in 2022 was $66,398, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $265,592 for a family of four. However, San Rafael contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

San Rafael is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call San Rafael home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of San Rafael residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. San Rafael also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 32.50% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in San Rafael include German, Irish, English, Italian, and European.

Foreign born people are also an important part of San Rafael's cultural character, accounting for 26.79% of the city’s population.

The most common language spoken in San Rafael is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.