About Sterling

Sterling is a somewhat small town located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 7,257 people and just one neighborhood, Sterling is the 218th largest community in Massachusetts.

Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Sterling is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Sterling is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Sterling who work in management occupations (14.03%), office and administrative support jobs (11.78%), and sales jobs (10.26%).

Also of interest is that Sterling has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

In addition, Sterling is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness.' But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.

Because of many things, Sterling is a great place for families with children to consider. First of all, many other families with children live here, making Sterling a place where both parents and children are more likely to develop social ties with other families, as well as find family-oriented services and community. The town's good public school district and large population of college-educated adults provide an environment conducive to academic values. With regard to real estate, Sterling has a high rate of owner-occupied single family homes, which tends to reflect stability in the local community. Finally, Sterling's overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.

Sterling is very much a car-oriented town. This is because the population of Sterling isn't large enough or dense enough to support an extensive public transit system. It has a lot of rural roads, and the distance between houses can be quite large, which together tends to discourage walking and bicycling to work. 98.42% of residents commute to work in their own car (and the drive is typically to a job out of town). People also tend to drive out of town for other services as well, such as shopping, doctors appointments, and more.

Sterling is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.

Sterling Information and Demographics

The education level of Sterling citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (14.96%): 35.85% of adults in Sterling have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Sterling in 2000 was $28,844, which is upper middle income relative to Massachusetts, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $115,376 for a family of four. However, Sterling contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Sterling home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Sterling is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Sterling include Italian, Irish, French, English, German, Polish, French Canadian, Swedish, and Scottish.

The most common language spoken in Sterling is English.