Reading is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 94,858 people and 48 associated neighborhoods, Reading is the fourth largest community in Pennsylvania. Reading has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.Reading is a blue-collar town, with 41.24% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Reading is a city of service providers, sales and office workers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Reading who work in office and administrative support (11.07%), food service (7.13%), and healthcare suport services (6.70%). Many people in Reading take advantage of public transportation to get around. In fact, for the size of the city, the number of people who use taxis to commute to work is quite high. This helps to fill a need among Reading citizens for affordable transportation.In Reading, just 11.74% of people have at least a bachelor's degree, which is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%. The per capita income in Reading in 2022 was $20,782, which is low income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $83,128 for a family of four. However, Reading contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Reading is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Reading 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 Reading, accounting for 67.17% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Reading residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Reading include German, Irish, Italian, Polish, and English. In addition, Reading has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (19.38%). The most common language spoken in Reading is Spanish. Other important languages spoken here include English and French Creole.
