Gaithersburg, MD (Observatory Heights)

How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.

The neighbors in the Observatory Heights neighborhood in Gaithersburg are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 73.7% of the neighborhoods in America. With 44.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 92.0% 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 Observatory Heights neighborhood, 34.3% 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 executive, management, and professional occupations, with 31.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (25.1%), and 9.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

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 Observatory Heights neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 47.3% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English, African languages, Tagalog (the first language of the Philippine region) and French.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the Observatory Heights neighborhood in Gaithersburg, MD, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as South American (13.7%). There are also a number of people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (6.7%), and residents who report Asian roots (6.4%), and some of the residents are also of Jamaican ancestry (4.9%), along with some African ancestry residents (4.6%), among others. In addition, 57.8% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in Observatory Heights neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (31.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (42.0%) 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 (30.3%) and 9.0% of residents also ride the bus for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.