New Rochelle is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New York. With a population of 82,288 people and 18 associated neighborhoods, New Rochelle is the 11th largest community in New York.

Housing costs in New Rochelle are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in New York.

Of important note, New Rochelle is also a city of artists. New Rochelle has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape New Rochelle’s character.

Also of interest is that New Rochelle 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: 14.20% 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.

One thing noticeable about New Rochelle, although not a huge city, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That’s because New Rochelle is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes New Rochelle a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

One of the nice things about New Rochelle is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

One downside of living in New Rochelle, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 31.46 minutes every day commuting to work. It is, however, a pedestrian-friendly city. Many of its neighborhoods are dense enough and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot. In addition, local public transit is widely used. For those who would prefer to avoid driving entirely and leave their car at home, it may be an option to use the transit instead.

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

The education level of New Rochelle ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in New Rochelle, 46.43% have at least a bachelor's degree. The typical US community has just 21.84% of its adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree.

The per capita income in New Rochelle in 2022 was $62,145, which is wealthy relative to New York and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $248,580 for a family of four. However, New Rochelle contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

New Rochelle is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call New Rochelle home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of New Rochelle residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. New Rochelle also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 31.04% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in New Rochelle include Italian, Irish, German, English, and Jamaican.

Foreign born people are also an important part of New Rochelle's cultural character, accounting for 27.35% of the city’s population.

The most common language spoken in New Rochelle is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.