Rensselaer is a somewhat small city located in the state of New York. With a population of 9,248 people and seven associated neighborhoods, Rensselaer is the 198th largest community in New York. Rensselaer has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 9.46% 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.

Despite being a small city, Rensselaer has a lot of people using the bus to get to and from work every day. Most of these people on the bus are using it to get to good jobs in other cities.

The overall education level of Rensselaer is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 21.84%: 27.90% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Rensselaer in 2022 was $38,033, which is middle income relative to New York, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $152,132 for a family of four. However, Rensselaer contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Rensselaer is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Rensselaer home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Rensselaer residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Rensselaer include Irish, Italian, German, English, and French.

The most common language spoken in Rensselaer is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.