According to the 2000 census there were 334,563 individuals, 143,739 households, and 74,169 families within the city limits. The population of the surrounding metropolitan area was 2,358,695. The largest groups in terms of race were 67.63% Caucasian, 27.12% African American, 2.75% Asian, and 1.32% Hispanic. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.8 males. The median income for a household in the city was $28,588, with 20.4% of the population living below the poverty line. Despite the high poverty rate, Pittsburgh has the lowest property crime rate and a lower-than-average violent crime rate among cities of similar size.
Economy
Pittsburgh's access to large reserves of raw materials, especially coal, was instrumental to the emergence of the “Steel City” as a leading industrial center in the late 19th cent. Industries include transportation equipment; metal, wood, plastic, paper, and glass products; printing and publishing; oil refining; textiles; chemicals; and computers. After the mid-1970s, as the number of those employed in the steel industry declined, the city's economic base underwent a dramatic shift from manufacturing to service industries and commercial enterprises. Once a major center for corporate headquarters, many departed in the 1990s, a period, however, that saw the growth of high-technology companies.
Despite a declining population, Pittsburgh remains the chief city of the eastern Ohio River Valley. It is also anchors the largest metropolitan area in Appalachia. Because of its low cost of living, economic opportunities, education, transportational and medical infrastructures, Pittsburgh consistently is ranked high in livability studies, being ranked the most livable city in the United States in 2007 by the Places Rated Alamanac.
