Burien is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.

For the size of the city, public transportation in Burien is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the bus. For Burien, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.

The education level of Burien citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 31.47% of adults in Burien have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Burien in 2022 was $49,175, which is upper middle income relative to Washington, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $196,700 for a family of four. However, Burien contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Burien is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Burien home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Burien residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Burien also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 23.14% of the city鈥檚 residents. Important ancestries of people in Burien include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Norwegian.

In addition, Burien has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (25.23%).

The most common language spoken in Burien is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Vietnamese.