In addition, Amherst is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on local Amherst culture, lifestyle and entertainment options. Amherst really pulses to the beat of the academic calendar. In Amherst every fall, returning students reinvigorate the community, who you will notice are all over town, buying groceries, out with friends, and getting acquainted or re-acquainted with each other and Amherst. One of the beneficial effects that colleges provide is that they tend to be lasting institutions that deliver direct economic benefits to the local economy in the form of such things as jobs for faculty and staff, and spending by students. Amherst benefits directly from this.
Amherst, while not large, also appears to be attractive to some younger, educated professionals, who help shape the character of the city.
Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 19.20 minutes getting to work every day.
Like elsewhere in America, most people in Amherst use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of Amherst‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding the bus. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.
Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Amherst, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Amherst is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 72.31% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84%.
The per capita income in Amherst in 2022 was $28,179, which is low income relative to Massachusetts, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $112,716 for a family of four. However, Amherst contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Amherst is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Amherst home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Amherst residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Amherst include Irish, Italian, English, German, and Polish.
Amherst also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 16.45%.
The most common language spoken in Amherst is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
