One downside of living in Brockton, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 30.56 minutes every day commuting to work. It is, however, a pedestrian-friendly city. Many of its neighborhoods are dense enough and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot. In addition, local public transit is widely used. For those who would prefer to avoid driving entirely and leave their car at home, it may be an option to use the transit instead.
Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Brockton is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, taxis helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Brockton area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.
In terms of college education, Brockton is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 20.66% of adults 25 and older in Brockton have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Brockton in 2018 was $34,180, which is low income relative to Massachusetts, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $136,720 for a family of four. However, Brockton contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Brockton is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Brockton home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Brockton residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Brockton also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.30% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Brockton include Cape Verdean, Haitian, Irish, Italian, and English.
In addition, Brockton has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (32.27%).
The most common language spoken in Brockton is English. Other important languages spoken here include French and Portuguese.
