Salem is a medium-sized city located in the state of Virginia. With a population of 25,600 people and nine associated neighborhoods, Salem is the 39th largest community in Virginia.Unlike some cities, Salem isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Salem are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Salem is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Salem who work in office and administrative support (13.46%), sales jobs (10.88%), and management occupations (8.84%). Also of interest is that Salem 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: 9.54% 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.Salem is also a college town, where lots of students live while attending area colleges. Because of the high percentage of people living in Salem enrolled in college, Salem has a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared towards the needs and activities of students. In terms of college education, Salem is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 21.84% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 31.14% of adults in Salem have a college degree. The per capita income in Salem in 2022 was $38,127, which is middle income relative to Virginia, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $152,508 for a family of four. However, Salem contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Salem is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Salem home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Salem residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Salem include English, German, Irish, Italian, and Scots-Irish. The most common language spoken in Salem is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Langs. of India.
