Anyone hoping to relocate to Salem will want to research their prospective community to get a feel for what it would be like to live there; statistics can often be helpful.
Salem is Oregon’s capital city and third-largest urban area, with a population just over 160,000. Most of Salem’s citizens are professionals, and others they work in clerical positions or as service providers. The city has a higher percentage of its workforce employed in jobs associated with information technology or mathematics than 95 percent of other communities in the nation.
In the Salem area, 61 percent of residents own their homes, a figure slightly below the national average. In the period from early April to early July 2016, the median selling price of a single-family home was $215,500.
The median age of the population is 36, approximately the same as the statewide statistic. The level of educational attainment is somewhat higher than the national average.
Salem is home to about 60 elementary, middle, and high schools. There are dozens of colleges and universities within a 50 mile radius, including Willamette University in the city itself.