Rochester is a relatively large city located in the state of New York. With a population of 209,352 people and 148 associated neighborhoods, Rochester is the eighth largest community in New York. Much of the housing stock in Rochester was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Rochester is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Rochester is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Rochester who work in office and administrative support (11.65%), sales jobs (8.87%), and teaching (8.15%). Also of interest is that Rochester has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 9.71% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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. Many people in Rochester take advantage of public transportation to get around. In fact, for the size of the city, the number of people who use the bus to commute to work is quite high. This helps to fill a need among Rochester citizens for affordable transportation.The overall education level of Rochester citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 29.38% of adults in Rochester have at least a bachelor's degree, and the average American community has 21.84%. The per capita income in Rochester in 2022 was $28,611, which is low income relative to New York, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $114,444 for a family of four. However, Rochester contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Rochester is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Rochester home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Rochester residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Rochester also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 19.70% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Rochester include German, Irish, Italian, English, and Polish. The most common language spoken in Rochester is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
