Driftwood is a tiny borough located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 35 people and just one neighborhood, Driftwood is the 1125th largest community in Pennsylvania. Driftwood has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic boroughs in the country.
Driftwood is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Driftwood is a borough of managers, construction workers and builders, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Driftwood who work in management occupations (42.86%), computer science and math (28.57%), and office and administrative support (0.00%).
Also of interest is that Driftwood has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Another notable thing is that Driftwood is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the borough experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller borough.
Driftwood’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the nation, making it a very safe place to live.
It is a fairly quiet borough 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!) Driftwood 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. Driftwood has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Driftwood than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Driftwood may be for you.
In Driftwood, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 33.93 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
As is often the case in a small borough, Driftwood doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The population of Driftwood has one of the lowest overall levels of education in the country: only 0.00% of people over 25 hold a college degree. The national average for all municipalities is 21.84%.
The per capita income in Driftwood in 2022 was $24,151, which is low income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $96,604 for a family of four. However, Driftwood contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Driftwood home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Driftwood residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Driftwood include German, Irish, Scottish, Italian, and Pennsylvania German.
The most common language spoken in Driftwood is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
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.
Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 57.0% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.2% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
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 97.8% of the neighborhoods in America. One of the notable things about is that it is one of the quietest neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and quantitative rating of quietness. When you are here, you will find it to be very quiet. If quiet and peaceful are your cup of tea, you may have found a great place for you.
More people work in manufacturing and as laborers here in the neighborhood than in 96.5% of the neighborhoods in America. Despite the loss of manufacturing jobs across the nation, this neighborhood remains a place where, compared to other parts of the country, you will find many laborers and manufacturers.
Furthermore, it used to be that most Americans lived on the farm, or otherwise made their living from the land, the forests, or the sea. With global trade and an economy increasingly based on providing services to one another, fewer people farm, fish or harvest timber now than at any time in American history. But according to NeighborhoodScout's leading analysis, the neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 3.8% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 95.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Yugoslav and Scots-Irish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Yugoslav ancestry and 4.1% have Scots-Irish ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 12.2% 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 98.6% 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 Driftwood are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 72.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 16.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 63.6% 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, 43.5% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 23.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (15.4%), and 13.7% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
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 98.3% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Driftwood, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (28.6%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (11.7%), and residents who report Italian roots (9.8%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (7.0%), along with some Scots-Irish ancestry residents (4.1%), 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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.4% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (79.7%) 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 (15.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.