Rochester is a somewhat small town located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 5,936 people and just one neighborhood, Rochester is the 239th largest community in Massachusetts.
Housing costs in Rochester 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 Massachusetts.
Unlike some towns, Rochester isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Rochester are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Rochester is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Rochester who work in healthcare (13.74%), management occupations (11.06%), and sales jobs (10.84%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.25% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.
Because of many things, Rochester is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Rochester really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Rochester perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
One downside of living in Rochester is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Rochester, the average commute to work is 33.47 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.
The citizens of Rochester are among the most well-educated in the nation: 43.45% of adults in Rochester have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Rochester in 2022 was $52,938, which is lower middle income relative to Massachusetts, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $211,752 for a family of four.
The people who call Rochester home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Rochester residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Rochester include Irish, Portuguese, English, Italian, and French.
The most common language spoken in Rochester is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Portuguese.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
While most Americans do drive to work alone each day, the neighborhood stands out by having 88.3% of commuters doing so, which is a higher proportion of people driving alone to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.2% of all American neighborhoods.
The neighborhood has a greater proportion of government workers living in it than 95.9% of the neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. This is a unique feature of this neighborhood, and one that shapes its character.
The neighborhood is a great option for families, as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's research on this neighborhood. The combination of top public schools, low crime rates, and owner-occupied single family homes, make this neighborhood among the top 7.5% of family-friendly neighborhoods in the state of Massachusetts. Many other families also live here, making it easy to socialize and develop a sense of community. In addition, families here highly value education, as is reflected by the strength of the local schools.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Portuguese and French Canadian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 16.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Portuguese ancestry and 7.0% have French Canadian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 2.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Portuguese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.8% of the neighborhoods in America.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Rochester are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 83.0% of the neighborhoods in America. With 14.0% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 59.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the neighborhood, 47.2% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 25.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (16.5%), and 13.4% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 94.0% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Portuguese.
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Rochester, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (27.1%). There are also a number of people of Portuguese ancestry (16.7%), and residents who report English roots (15.9%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (9.5%), along with some French ancestry residents (8.8%), among others.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (36.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (88.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.