Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans and Wayne Counties

Metropolitan Rochester is home to nearly 1.1 million people, based on the 2010 Census, having grown by a relatively modest 1.6 percent during the preceding decade. More than 70 percent of the metro area’s population resides in Monroe County, which includes the city of Rochester. The other five counties are predominantly rural and suburban and are much less densely populated; Monroe County’s population density is about ten times higher than in the rest of the metro area and nearly three times the state-wide average. The fastest-growing of these five counties has been Ontario, whose population expanded by nearly 8 percent between 2000 and 2010. The population in the other counties was stable to rising modestly, except in Orleans County, whose population declined by roughly 3 percent.

The educational profile of the population is slightly more advanced than that of the nation: 31 percent of adults hold college degrees, slightly below the statewide figure but above the national average. Within the metro area, though, only Monroe County's figure is above average. Median household income is somewhat above the national figure, except in Orleans County, where it is substantially lower. In terms of the area's demographic profile, Blacks make up roughly 12 percent of the population—somewhat below the national average. The figures for Hispanics (6 percent) and Asians (2½ percent) are well below the respective national averages.

Historically, Rochester's key industry has been photographic equipment and related manufacturing. Largely as a result, Rochester has developed a well-educated, high-tech workforce. Prior to 2000, its industry mix and the presence of a number of large multinational headquarters had enabled the local economy to weather recessions better than almost any other part of New York State. However, metropolitan Rochester sustained fairly steep job losses in the last two economic downturns (2001 and 2008-09) and saw little or no job growth during the intervening expansion; local manufacturing employment shrank by roughly 40 percent during the last decade. In 2010, however, manufacturing employment leveled off, and total employment rebounded more strongly than at the national level.

Home values across the Rochester metro area tend to be below the nationwide average: based on data from 2007-2009, the median home value was just under $126,000—about a third lower than for the U.S. and 60 percent below the state-wide median. Across the five counties, the median ranged from $87,000 in Orleans County to just under $134,000 in Ontario County. Over the past decade, home prices in this area have been far more stable than either nationwide or statewide, as Rochester’s housing market experienced neither a huge boom nor a huge bust. Between 2000 and 2006, while prices more than doubled at the national level, they rose by just 25 percent in the Rochester area. They continued to climb slightly in 2007 but then declined over the next two years; still, by the end of 2010, prices had fallen by just 6 percent—a small fraction of the decline seen across the nation or even across New York State¹.

Recent Trends
Rochester area employment accelerated in early 2011, and grew at a brisk annual rate of more than 3½ percent in the first half of the year. As of mid-year, the metro area had recouped nearly all of the 19,000 net jobs lost during the 2008-09 downturn. The job gains in 2011 have mainly been driven by the professional & business services, education & health services, and manufacturing sectors. Home prices, which did not decline particularly sharply during the downturn, have yet to show any signs of a significant rebound; as of mid-2011, the median price remained roughly 5 below its summer-2007 peak.

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¹Trends in home prices referred to here are all based on repeat-sales indexes from CoreLogic.

	Rochester MSA*: selected characteristics
		Population in 2010			% of 2010 Population that is1
		Total Population1	% Change from 20001	per Sq. Mile2	Black	Hispanic	Asian
	Rochester Metro Area	1,054,323	1.6	360	11.6	6.1	2.5
	Livingston	65,393	1.7	103	2.4	2.8	1.2
	Monroe	744,344	1.2	1,129	15.2	7.3	3.3
	Ontario	107,931	7.7	167	2.3	3.4	1.0
	Orleans	42,883	-2.9	110	5.9	4.1	0.4
	Wayne	93,772	0.0	155	3.1	3.7	0.5
	New York State	19,378,102	2.1	410	15.9	17.6	7.3
	USA	308,745,538	9.7	87	12.6	16.3	4.8

	Rochester MSA*: selected characteristics
		Median		% of Homes	% of Adults with5
		Household Income3	Home Value4	Owner Occupied4	College Degrees	HS Degrees
	Rochester Metro Area	$51,444	$125,900	69.7	30.8	88.1
	Livingston	$52,342	$114,800	76.0	22.4	87.9
	Monroe	$51,065	$131,800	67.1	33.9	88.2
	Ontario	$55,602	$133,700	75.1	29.8	90.5
	Orleans	$44,755	$87,200	75.1	13.9	83.7
	Wayne	$52,775	$108,700	77.3	21.2	86.3
	New York State	$54,659	$310,000	55.4	31.8	84.2
	USA	$50,221	$191,900	66.4	27.5	84.6
* Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) are metro areas defined by the Office of Management and Budget for use by federal statistical agencies. 1 Source: US Bureau of the Census, decennial Census of Population. 2 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Population; land area data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s geographic database (TIGER® database) for Census 2000. 3 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, American Community Survey, 2009 (1-year estimates) 4 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, American Community Survey, 2007-09 (3-year estimates) 5 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, American Community Survey, 2006-08 (3-year estimates)

September 2011