 The per capita income for the city was $25,827.About 3.3% of families and 5.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.5% of those under age 18 and 4.2% of those age 65 or over.For a brief time during a peak period of the commercial fishing industry, Petersburg was rumored to have the highest per-capita income for a working town in the U.S.

Commercial fishing is the dominant economic driver of Petersburg's economy.