Beacon is a somewhat small city located in the state of New York. With a population of 14,290 people and five associated neighborhoods, Beacon is the 139th largest community in New York. Beacon has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.

Housing costs in Beacon 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 New York.

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

Also of interest is that Beacon 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: 16.95% 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.

In addition, Beacon is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates", which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.

In Beacon, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 36.48 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.

Even though Beacon is a smaller city, it has many people who hop on public transportation – mostly the train for their daily commute to work. Typically, these people are commuting to good jobs in the surrounding cities.

The education level of Beacon ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in Beacon, 45.18% have at least a bachelor's degree. The typical US community has just 21.84% of its adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree.

The per capita income in Beacon in 2022 was $48,985, which is upper middle income relative to New York, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $195,940 for a family of four. However, Beacon contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Beacon is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Beacon home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Beacon residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Beacon also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 20.14% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Beacon include Irish, Italian, German, English, and Portuguese.

The most common language spoken in Beacon is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and German/Yiddish.