Cortland is a medium-sized city located in the state of New York. With a population of 17,276 people and seven associated neighborhoods, Cortland is the 107th largest community in New York. Much of the housing stock in Cortland was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.Cortland is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Cortland is a city of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Cortland who work in food service (13.31%), office and administrative support (10.66%), and sales jobs (10.26%). Cortland is a place where college students are a big part of the character and culture of the town. Small towns have often struggled with declining populations over the past few decades, but the presence of such a large college student population has helped Cortland to fight this trend. Not only does the college population add spending and jobs to local economy, but it also contributes a very tangible, youthful energy to the town. Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Cortland spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 17.66 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.The percentage of people in Cortland who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 21.84%: 26.09% of adults in Cortland have at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Cortland in 2022 was $27,328, which is low income relative to New York, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $109,312 for a family of four. However, Cortland contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Cortland is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Cortland home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Cortland residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Cortland include Irish, English, German, Italian, and Polish. The most common language spoken in Cortland is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Arabic.
