Worcester is a relatively large city located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 207,621 people and 46 associated neighborhoods, Worcester is the second largest community in Massachusetts. Worcester has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.Unlike some cities, Worcester isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Worcester are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Worcester is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Worcester who work in office and administrative support (10.28%), management occupations (9.65%), and teaching (7.64%). Also of interest is that Worcester 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: 10.71% 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. Worcester is made interesting by being both a reasonably big city and having a major college student population: students here will find that the city provides a lot of amenities, culture, and opportunities for them. Worcester is more than just a college town, however, though the thousands of students certainly are a major part of the character of the city, as well as a contributor to the local economy. The education level of Worcester citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 34.09% of adults in Worcester have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree. The per capita income in Worcester in 2022 was $35,825, which is low income relative to Massachusetts, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $143,300 for a family of four. However, Worcester contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Worcester is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Worcester home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Worcester residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Worcester also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 24.91% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Worcester include Irish, Italian, English, French, and Polish. In addition, Worcester has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (23.17%). The most common language spoken in Worcester is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.
