Rolla is a medium-sized city located in the state of Missouri. With a population of 20,423 people and eight associated neighborhoods, Rolla is the 35th largest community in Missouri.Rolla is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Rolla is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Rolla who work in teaching (12.55%), office and administrative support (11.53%), and sales jobs (8.91%). In addition, Rolla is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on local Rolla culture, lifestyle and entertainment options. Rolla really pulses to the beat of the academic calendar. In Rolla every fall, returning students reinvigorate the community, who you will notice are all over town, buying groceries, out with friends, and getting acquainted or re-acquainted with each other and Rolla. One of the beneficial effects that colleges provide is that they tend to be lasting institutions that deliver direct economic benefits to the local economy in the form of such things as jobs for faculty and staff, and spending by students. Rolla benefits directly from this. Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Rolla spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 15.20 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.The education level of Rolla citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 35.47% of adults in Rolla have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree. The per capita income in Rolla in 2022 was $23,580, which is lower middle income relative to Missouri, and low income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $94,320 for a family of four. However, Rolla contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Rolla is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Rolla home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Rolla residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Rolla include German, Irish, English, French, and Italian. The most common language spoken in Rolla is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Langs. of India.
