In addition, Merrick is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.
Because of many things, Merrick is a great place for families with children to consider. First of all, many other families with children live here, making Merrick a place where both parents and children are more likely to develop social ties with other families, as well as find family-oriented services and community. The town’s good public school district and large population of college-educated adults provide an environment conducive to academic values. With regard to real estate, Merrick has a high rate of owner-occupied single family homes, which tends to reflect stability in the local community. Finally, Merrick’s overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.
Merrick is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.
In Merrick, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 35.52 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit.
Although the majority of commuting trips in the town are by private automobile, Merrick is somewhat unusual for a town of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the train helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Merrick area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.
If knowledge is power, Merrick is a pretty powerful place. 61.57% of the adults in Merrick have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.
The per capita income in Merrick in 2022 was $70,768, which is wealthy relative to New York and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $283,072 for a family of four.
Merrick is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Merrick home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Merrick residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Merrick also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.27% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Merrick include Italian, Irish, German, Russian, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Merrick is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
