Worcester is a relatively large city located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 172,648 people and 41 constituent neighborhoods, Worcester is the second largest community in Massachusetts. Much of the housing stock in Worcester was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Worcester is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Worcester is a city of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Worcester who work in office and administrative support jobs (16.37%), sales jobs (9.93%), and management occupations (6.76%).

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.

Worcester is a nice balance between life in a moderately big city and the interesting diversions and culture that come from having a big college student population. The thousands of students who arrive on campus every fall will find that Worcester has plenty of amenities and opportunities for them, while residents of Worcester enjoy the lectures, music, art, and economic trickle-down that colleges typically provide. "Town and Gown" complement each other in Worcester!

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Worcester is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. The bus helps to get a lot of people to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Worcester area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

Worcester Information and Demographics

The percentage of people in Worcester who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 14.96%: 23.32% of adults in Worcester have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Worcester in 2000 was $18,614, which is low income relative to Massachusetts, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $74,456 for a family of four.

Worcester is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Worcester home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Worcester is White, followed by 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 15.32% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Worcester include Irish, Italian, French, Polish, English, French Canadian, and Swedish.

The most common language spoken in Worcester is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Vietnamese.