Allentown is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 125,094 people and 39 associated neighborhoods, Allentown is the third largest community in Pennsylvania. Much of the housing stock in Allentown was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.Allentown is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Allentown is a city of service providers, sales and office workers, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Allentown who work in office and administrative support (11.06%), sales jobs (8.44%), and management occupations (6.48%). Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.38% 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. The percentage of adults in Allentown who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 18.29% of the adults in Allentown have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in Allentown in 2022 was $25,144, which is low income relative to Pennsylvania, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $100,576 for a family of four. However, Allentown contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Allentown is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Allentown home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Allentown, accounting for 54.33% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Allentown residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Allentown include German, Irish, Italian, English, and Polish. Allentown also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 20.48%. The most common language spoken in Allentown is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Arabic.
