Claremont highlight
Strong academic
Claremont is nicknamed 'The City of Trees and PhDs,' with one of the highest concentrations of advanced-degree holders in California.
Claremont's identity as an educational center traces to 1887, when Pomona College was founded in nearby Pomona, California, and relocated to Claremont in 1888. The city grew around the college and its mission to create rigorous liberal arts education on the New England model. Today, the presence of seven colleges, including graduate universities and institutes, has shaped the city's culture and economy: the Claremont Colleges employ approximately 3,000 people, making education and research the primary economic drivers.
The concentration of advanced education has produced a distinctive demographic. Claremont has won the Tree City USA designation for 22 consecutive years, reflecting both the city's historic commitment to preserving and planting shade trees—a legacy of its founders' vision—and the residents' values of environmental stewardship and quality of life. The combination of tree-lined neighborhoods and a highly educated population has earned the city the nickname 'The City of Trees and PhDs.' Many households include faculty members, researchers, and professionals who hold advanced degrees from Pomona, the other consortium colleges, or other universities.
For families in an education-centered community, planning for financial security often involves thinking across longer horizons: education savings for children, mortgages tied to academic calendars, and retirement tied to academic careers. A term life insurance policy that covers the mortgage years while children are in school—whether that school is primary, high school, or college—provides the kind of stable foundation that allows households to invest in the intellectual and social life that defines Claremont.