Boykin is a tiny town located in the state of Alabama. With a population of 208 people and just one neighborhood, Boykin is the 378th largest community in Alabama.
Unlike some towns, Boykin isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Boykin are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Boykin is a town of service providers, production and manufacturing workers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Boykin who work in maintenance occupations (38.68%), sales jobs (13.21%), and personal care services (13.21%).
Another notable thing is that Boykin is an extremely popular destination for tourists and seasonal residents. So much of the population is seasonal such that the town’s population swells significantly during the vacation season, and drops again when the season ends. Because of this, much of the local economy is centered around tourism; some businesses may be operated only during the high season. During the low season, year-round residents will notice that the city is a substantially quieter place to live.
Overall, Boykin’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the nation, which makes a great place to live if safety is an important concern.
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!) Boykin 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. Boykin has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Boykin than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Boykin may be for you.
In Boykin, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 46.12 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
Being a small town, Boykin does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
Boykin ranks among the bottom of the nation in terms of college education compared to other cities and towns: only 0.00% of people over 25 have a college degree.
The per capita income in Boykin in 2022 was $13,101, which is low income relative to Alabama and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $52,404 for a family of four.
The people who call Boykin home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Boykin residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Boykin include German, English, Yugoslavian, Other West Indian, and West Indian.
The most common language spoken in Boykin is English. Other important languages spoken here include African languages and Arabic.
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.
One of the unique characteristics of the neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 99.6% of the neighborhoods in America. Also of note, 73.3% of the children in this area live in poverty; an extraordinarily high percentage compared to other neighborhoods in the nation. In a nation where approximately one in four children grows up in poverty, this neighborhood stands out for the depth of the problem manifested here.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's exclusive research revealed that 99.6% of the adult residents in the neighborhood do not have a 4-year college degree, which is a lower rate of college graduated adults than found in 98.9% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, single parenting is hard. But you don't have to tell the neighborhood about it; they already know. 24.8% of this neighborhood's households are run by single mothers, which is a higher concentration than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.8% of American neighborhoods. Further NeighborhoodScout research showed strong statistical correlations among high rates of children living in single parent households, and neighborhood crime, particularly violent crime, neighborhood poverty, and, importantly, the percentage of low weight births and rates of infant mortality.
Finally, with a nice mix of college students, safety from crime, and decent walkability, the neighborhood rates highly as a college student friendly place to live, and one that college students and their parents may want to consider. NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that it rates more highly for a good place for college students to live than 87.5% of the neighborhoods in AL. This often also means that the area has certain amenities and services geared towards college students, from undergraduates to graduate students.
The neighborhood stands out for having the majority of its residential real estate made up of mobile homes. In fact, 58.4% of the occupied real estate here are mobile homes, which is a greater proportion than is found in 99.5% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. If you like mobile homes, this might be a great neighborhood in which to look for real estate.
In addition, this neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 8 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 97.5% of America.
Furthermore, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 33.7% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 96.6% 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.
NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research identifies the neighborhood as having one of the highest concentrations of people employed in manufacturing or as laborers of any neighborhood in America. In fact, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs nationally, this neighborhood has 53.6% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 99.5% of American neighborhoods.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 17.6% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.3% of all neighborhoods in America.
Some neighborhoods have more internal cohesiveness than others. While other neighborhoods feel like a collection of strangers who just happen to live near each other. Sometimes this comes down to not only the personalities of the people in a place, but how long people have been together in that neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research has revealed some interesting things about the rootedness of people in the neighborhood. More residents of the neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 97.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.
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 Boykin are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 99.6% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 73.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 98.9% 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, 53.6% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 25.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (14.2%), and 6.9% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.1% of households.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
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 Boykin, AL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (3.2%). There are also a number of people of African ancestry (3.2%), and residents who report English roots (1.1%).
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 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (48.0% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (77.2%) 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.
