Rensselaer is a somewhat small city located in the state of New York. With a population of 9,310 people and seven associated neighborhoods, Rensselaer is the 198th largest community in New York. Rensselaer has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.Unlike some cities, Rensselaer isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Rensselaer are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Rensselaer is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Rensselaer who work in office and administrative support (10.19%), management occupations (8.44%), and business and financial occupations (6.61%). Also of interest is that Rensselaer has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 12.41% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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 Rensselaer, a lot of people use the bus to get to work every day though Rensselaer is a relatively small city. Those that ride the bus are primarily traveling out of town to good jobs in other cities.The overall education level of Rensselaer is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 21.84%: 26.49% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Rensselaer in 2022 was $38,123, which is middle income relative to New York, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $152,492 for a family of four. However, Rensselaer contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Rensselaer is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Rensselaer home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Rensselaer residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Rensselaer include Irish, Italian, German, English, and French. The most common language spoken in Rensselaer is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.
