Ashley is a very small borough located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 2,599 people and just one neighborhood, Ashley is the 556th largest community in Pennsylvania. Much of the housing stock in Ashley was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic boroughs in the country.
Unlike some boroughs where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Ashley is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Ashley is a borough of sales and office workers, service providers, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Ashley who work in office and administrative support (16.26%), sales jobs (11.46%), and maintenance occupations (10.77%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 12.41% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
The rate of college-level education in Ashley is quite a bit lower than the national average among all cities of 21.84%: just 12.24% of people here over 25 have a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree.
The per capita income in Ashley in 2022 was $27,948, which is lower middle income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $111,792 for a family of four. However, Ashley contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Ashley also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 39.70% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Ashley is a very ethnically-diverse borough. The people who call Ashley home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ashley residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Ashley also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 15.81% of the borough’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Ashley include Irish, Italian, German, Polish, and English.
The most common language spoken in Ashley is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Spanish.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
The neighborhood has a greater percentage of children living in poverty (75.6%) than found in 99.0% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Children living in poverty is one of the challenges facing America, and the world, and in this neighborhood in particular, the problem can be considered acute.
In addition, astoundingly, the neighborhood has one of the highest concentrations of divorcees living here than of any neighborhood, a higher concentration than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.6% of U.S. neighborhoods. This may be because people living here divorce more often than others, or that divorced people move here after they become divorced. If you are divorced, you will be in good company in this particular Ashley neighborhood.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Irish and Polish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 32.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Irish ancestry and 16.7% have Polish ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 11.3% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Italian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Ashley are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 91.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 75.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 99.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the neighborhood, 32.8% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 30.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (21.4%), and 15.5% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.1% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Spanish.
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the neighborhood in Ashley, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (32.2%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (18.1%), and residents who report German roots (17.9%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (16.7%), along with some South American ancestry residents (9.5%), 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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (44.3% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (77.3%) 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 (9.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.