Wilkes-Barre is a medium-sized city located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 44,254 people and 24 associated neighborhoods, Wilkes-Barre is the 14th largest community in Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.Unlike some cities, Wilkes-Barre isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Wilkes-Barre are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Wilkes-Barre is a city of service providers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Wilkes-Barre who work in office and administrative support (13.14%), sales jobs (8.35%), and food service (8.19%). One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 7.41% 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. In terms of college education, Wilkes-Barre is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 19.40% of adults 25 and older in Wilkes-Barre have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in Wilkes-Barre in 2022 was $25,581, which is low income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $102,324 for a family of four. However, Wilkes-Barre contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Wilkes-Barre is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Wilkes-Barre home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Wilkes-Barre residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Wilkes-Barre also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 30.61% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Wilkes-Barre include Irish, Polish, German, Italian, and English. Wilkes-Barre also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 15.09%. The most common language spoken in Wilkes-Barre is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
