Rochester, the county seat of Monroe County and the fourth-most populous city in New York after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, had a population of 211,328, according to the United States Census conducted in 2020. The city is located in Western New York and serves as the focal point of a metropolitan area that covers six counties and has a population of one million people. The city's early prosperity came from the fertile Genesee River Valley, which supported many flour mills, and later from its status as a manufacturing hub, which triggered rapid population expansion.

Paychex, Carestream Health, and numerous other national and local enterprises, as well as several Fortune 1000 companies, are based in Rochester. Although Xerox's current headquarters are in Norwalk, Connecticut, the company still has a sizable presence in the city where it was founded in 1906 as the Haloid Company. Bausch & Lomb relocated to Bridgewater, New Jersey in 2014, and while Frank Gannett and Hiram Sibley launched their respective businesses in Rochester, Western Union and the Gannett newspaper firm have since moved elsewhere.

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