Medford is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 59,898 people and 14 associated neighborhoods, Medford is the 21st largest community in Massachusetts. Medford has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country. Housing costs in Medford 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.Medford is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 90.50% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Medford is a city of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Medford who work in management occupations (12.07%), office and administrative support (9.25%), and business and financial occupations (9.06%). Also of interest is that Medford 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: 26.81% 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 of the nice things about Medford 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. In Medford, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 31.54 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. In addition, the city is also quite pedestrian-friendly, because many neighborhoods are very dense and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot. For the size of the city, public transportation in Medford is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the subway. For Medford, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Medford. 59.81% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%. The per capita income in Medford in 2022 was $66,184, which is upper middle income relative to Massachusetts, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $264,736 for a family of four. However, Medford contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Medford is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Medford home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Medford residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Medford include Irish, Italian, English, German, and Polish. In addition, Medford has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (23.26%). The most common language spoken in Medford is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
