In addition, Norfolk is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates", which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.
Because of many things, Norfolk is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Norfolk really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Norfolk perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
In Norfolk, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 36.72 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit.
In Norfolk, a lot of people use the train to get to work every day though Norfolk is a relatively small town. Those that ride the train are primarily traveling out of town to good jobs in other cities.
Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Norfolk, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Norfolk is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 58.55% 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 Norfolk in 2022 was $70,548, which is upper middle income relative to Massachusetts, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $282,192 for a family of four.
Norfolk is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Norfolk home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Norfolk residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Norfolk include Irish, English, Italian, German, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Norfolk is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Portuguese.
