Salem is a relatively large city located in the state of Oregon. With a population of 177,487 people and 46 associated neighborhoods, Salem is the third largest community in Oregon.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Salem is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Salem is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Salem who work in office and administrative support (10.97%), sales jobs (9.39%), and management occupations (8.73%). Also of interest is that Salem has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. A relatively large number of people in Salem telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 12.26% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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. In terms of college education, Salem is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 21.84% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 30.95% of adults in Salem have a college degree. The per capita income in Salem in 2022 was $35,469, which is upper middle income relative to Oregon and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $141,876 for a family of four. However, Salem contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. 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 White, followed by Asian. Salem also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 22.84% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Salem include German, English, Irish, European, and Norwegian. The most common language spoken in Salem is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Pacific Island languages.
