Salem is a somewhat small coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 5,324 people and five associated neighborhoods, Salem is the 305th largest community in New Jersey. Salem has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.Salem is a blue-collar town, with 37.91% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Salem is a city of service providers, production and manufacturing workers, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Salem who work in healthcare suport services (11.87%), maintenance occupations (7.99%), and healthcare (6.78%). One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 11.74% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. One of the nice things about Salem is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities. For a small city, Salem has a lot of people who use public transit to get to work, and those that do mostly ride the bus. This suggests that a real need for low-cost transportation in Salem exists, and local transit is helping to meet that need.The percentage of people in Salem with college degrees is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%: just 11.29% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in Salem in 2022 was $21,330, which is low income relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $85,320 for a family of four. However, Salem contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Salem also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 31.63% of its population below the federal poverty line.Salem is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Salem home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Salem residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Salem also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.26% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Salem include Italian, Irish, German, English, and Polish. The most common language spoken in Salem is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
