If you live in Portland Oregon or the metro area of the Portland suburbs, you know that we have a truly unique culture and way of life. Whether we live in Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Hillsboro or Gresham, we all tend to say we live in Portland and connect with the cool, weird, green and interesting elements that make up our entire area. While thinking about it the other day, we thought it would be fun to do some research on some of the not-so-popular facts about Portland and include some of the more unique and crazy facts as well. So enjoy these fun facts about Portland Oregon.

Some of the facts and tidbits we discovered were quite surprising to us and we think you will find them interesting as well. We also want to point out that a few of the fun facts listed could not readily be verified and we also made up one that should get a smile out of you. So here’s the things you didn’t know about Portland.

20 Unique Facts About Portland, Oregon

1 – The Portland International Airport (PDX) was ranked as the number 1 World’s Best Airport (domestic), by Travel + Leisure. Apparently, it’s more than a few that take photos of their feet at PDX.

2 – Portland ranked as the 10th Best Big City in the U.S. – Condé Nast Traveler spoke to over 100,000 people to get their picks for the best big cities and Portland came out in the top 10. How cool is that?

3 – The median age of Portland residents is 36.3 years old. Though we tend to think of Portland as a young person’s city, guess what? We are aging. We seem to be ok with that, aren’t we?

4 – Portland has more breweries than any other city. This one was kind of a no brainer. Of course we have more breweries than any other city. Who’s ready for a cold one?

5 – Portland ranked Best Beer City in the World. Like we said… DUH!

6 – Forbes ranked Portland as the 18th Best City For Millennials in 2015. When evaluated for things such as the number of millennials, job opportunities, and access to bars, restaurants, and affordable housing, Portland came in at 18. Not bad when you consider they reviewed the data of 232 cities.

7 – Portland is considered to have a higher cost of living regarding housing costs than the average US city.

8 – We love our food –  Portland first started making spaces for food carts as early as 1912! We have so many food carts, that we rival New York in this foodie fact. Now that is an accomplishment!

9 – How did Portland get its name?  in 1845, Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine and Asa Lovejoy, a lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts BOTH wanted to name it after their hometowns. They flipped a coin to decide and Pettygrove won the toss. Boston Oregon just doesn’t sound right, does it?

10 – Women edge out men – 50.5% of the population in Portland are female. We kind of like the fact that our population is fairly even.

11 – Portland’s green-friendly city has the largest number of vegetarian and vegan options for diners in the country, and almost 80% of our restaurants are local. Anyone eating gluten-free these days?

12 – There is a law on the books in Portland that says Shoelaces must be tied while walking down the street. We are not sure about you, but we sure see a lot of lawbreakers when we go out in the city. Be careful not to trip! 🙂

12 – In Portland, we average 42 inches of rain per year and 154 days per year that have some measurable level of precipitation. In other words, it rains a lot! It is a rainforest, you know. Why do you think it stays so green?

14 – Though our population is minuscule compared to places like New York City (and we are thankful it is), Portland is the 28th largest city in the country. We are large enough to have the things a large city should have, yet small enough to be connected to one another like a smaller town.

15 – Keeping Portland Weird lives up to its motto with this little tidbit of factual green space – Portland is the home of the smallest park in the world. It’s true! The Mill’s End Park is only two feet across.

16 – Many Portland Metro residents don’t realize the TV series “Portlandia” is a comedy. (ok, we made this one up)

17 – We like it Green! Portland was recently ranked the 16th Greenest City in the country based on air quality, population density, transportation options and several other factors.

18 – Our Hood to Coast Relay run, is the largest event of its type in the world.

19 – In the Spring it would be feasible to snowboard on Mount Hood in the morning, water ski in downtown Portland in the afternoon and surf in Seaside in the evening. ALL IN ONE DAY. Have you ever thought about how unique that is? Where else could someone do something so crazy in a single day? Here in Portland we’re just cool like that.

20 – The overall Portland Metropolitan area, (including Clark and Skamania counties in Washington) has grown almost 50 percent in the last quarter-century to 2.3 million people. 65% of this growth was attributed to people moving here.

Here in the Portland area, we are really blessed to have an amazing place to call home. The beauty, culture and lifestyle of our city continues to attract visitors and new transplants at respectable levels year after year. We can tell you that we are certainly proud to call this crazy, fun and unique city our home. How about you?

Read even more facts about Portland.

If you are aware of any other fun facts about Portland, be sure to let us know in the comments.