West Kill is a tiny town located in the state of New York. With a population of 121 people and just one neighborhood, West Kill is the 978th largest community in New York.
West Kill is a blue-collar town, with 48.39% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, West Kill is a town of transportation and shipping workers, sales and office workers, and construction workers and builders. There are especially a lot of people living in West Kill who work in office and administrative support (35.48%), food service (9.68%), and business and financial occupations (6.45%).
Another notable thing is that West Kill is a major vacation destination. Much of the town’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, West Kill’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
The overall crime rate in West Kill is one of the lowest in the US. This makes it one of the safer places to live in the country in terms of crime.
It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) West Kill has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. West Kill has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in West Kill than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, West Kill may be for you.
West Kill is very much a car-oriented town. This is because the population of West Kill isn't large enough or dense enough to support an extensive public transit system. It has a lot of rural roads, and the distance between houses can be quite large, which together tends to discourage walking and bicycling to work. 100.00% of residents commute to work in their own car (and the drive is typically to a job out of town). People also tend to drive out of town for other services as well, such as shopping, doctors appointments, and more.
West Kill is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
In terms of college education, West Kill ranks among the least educated cities in the nation, as only 4.55% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in West Kill in 2022 was $40,641, which is middle income relative to New York, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $162,564 for a family of four. However, West Kill contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call West Kill home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of West Kill residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in West Kill include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Yugoslavian.
The most common language spoken in West Kill is English. Other important languages spoken here include Slavic languages and German/Yiddish.
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in West Kill, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Owner-occupied real estate dominates the neighborhood. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout research, the percentage of residential real estate occupied by its owner is higher here than in 95.1% of neighborhoods in America. Despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 65.2%, which is higher than 99.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, unpopulated, and rural, the neighborhood is one of the least crowded neighborhoods in all of America. If you like open space, no traffic, and lots of room, this neighborhood may be just what you are looking for. According to NeighborhoodScout's leading research, this neighborhood is less densely populated than 96.5% of the neighborhoods in America.
If you are planning to retire in New York, this neighborhood should be on your must-see list. For many reasons, may be considered a retiree's dream neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and metrics, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety from crime compared to other neighborhoods in New York, while also offering a diverse range of housing options. This, along with the vibrant mix of very educated seniors and other age groups who choose to live here, makes the neighborhood more retiree-friendly than 95.6% of neighborhoods in NY. If a New York retirement is in your future, this neighborhood should be one of the places you visit. In addition to being an excellent choice for active retirees, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for families with school-aged children.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Ukrainian and Dutch ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Ukrainian ancestry and 3.5% have Dutch ancestry.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in West Kill are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 64.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 13.2% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 56.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the neighborhood, 38.9% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 31.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (22.5%), and 7.6% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 90.6% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (2.5%).
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in West Kill, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Italian (16.3%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (10.8%), and residents who report German roots (10.5%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (9.2%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (8.1%), among others.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (38.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (69.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (14.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.