La Crosse is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of Wisconsin. With a population of 51,327 people and 18 associated neighborhoods, La Crosse is the 12th largest community in Wisconsin.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, La Crosse is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, La Crosse is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in La Crosse who work in office and administrative support (10.66%), food service (10.41%), and sales jobs (8.75%). Also of interest is that La Crosse has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. A relatively large number of people in La Crosse telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 9.99% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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 addition, La Crosse is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on local La Crosse culture, lifestyle and entertainment options. La Crosse really pulses to the beat of the academic calendar. In La Crosse every fall, returning students reinvigorate the community, who you will notice are all over town, buying groceries, out with friends, and getting acquainted or re-acquainted with each other and La Crosse. One of the beneficial effects that colleges provide is that they tend to be lasting institutions that deliver direct economic benefits to the local economy in the form of such things as jobs for faculty and staff, and spending by students. La Crosse benefits directly from this. Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 17.43 minutes getting to work every day.The population of La Crosse is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 21.84% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 34.81% of adults in La Crosse have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree. The per capita income in La Crosse in 2022 was $34,356, which is lower middle income relative to Wisconsin, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $137,424 for a family of four. However, La Crosse contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. La Crosse is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call La Crosse home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of La Crosse residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in La Crosse include German, Irish, Norwegian, English, and Polish. The most common language spoken in La Crosse is English. Other important languages spoken here include Miao/Hmong and Polish.
