Columbia is a relatively large city located in the state of South Carolina. With a population of 142,416 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.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.30% 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.

Combining city textures and college town sensibilities, Columbia really has a nice blend of characteristics. While not a huge city, Columbia is big enough to offer a healthy dose of diversion, opportunity, and amenity to its residents and to the thousands of college students who descend on it every fall. Its size and diversity makes Columbia more than just a college town, but removing the students from the equation would undeniably change Columbia’s character and quality of life.

Not only is Columbia a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, shaping the character of the city into a place that is geared toward, and considered attractive to, many single, educated people. Many singles consider Columbia a good place to live without being in a really big city, with opportunities for friendships and fun with others like themselves.

Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 19.18 minutes getting to work every day.

The education level of Columbia ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in Columbia, 44.79% 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 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.