Gardner is a medium-sized city located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 21,381 people and five associated neighborhoods, Gardner is the 92nd largest community in Massachusetts. Much of the housing stock in Gardner was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.Gardner is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Gardner is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Gardner who work in office and administrative support (13.73%), sales jobs (9.51%), and healthcare (9.31%). A relatively large number of people in Gardner telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 13.32% 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. The citizens of Gardner are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 23.80% of adults in Gardner having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in Gardner in 2022 was $37,215, which is low income relative to Massachusetts, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $148,860 for a family of four. However, Gardner contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Gardner is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Gardner home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Gardner residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Gardner also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.67% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Gardner include Irish, French, French Canadian, English, and Italian. The most common language spoken in Gardner is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.
