Bar Harbor is a somewhat small coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Maine. With a population of 5,326 people and just one neighborhood, Bar Harbor is the 74th largest community in Maine.
Bar Harbor home prices are not only among the most expensive in Maine, but Bar Harbor real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Bar Harbor is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 93.51% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Bar Harbor is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Bar Harbor who work in management occupations (20.73%), sales jobs (11.64%), and teaching (10.86%).
Of important note, Bar Harbor is also a town of artists. Bar Harbor has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Bar Harbor’s character.
And if you like science, one thing you'll find is that Bar Harbor has lots of scientists living in town - whether they be life scientists, physical scientists (like astronomers), or social scientists (like geographers!). So, if you're scientific-minded, you might like it here too.
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 21.86% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Bar Harbor is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.
One of the benefits of Bar Harbor is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 18.10 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.
As is often the case in a small town, Bar Harbor doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Bar Harbor. 68.31% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.
The per capita income in Bar Harbor in 2022 was $58,427, which is wealthy relative to Maine and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $233,708 for a family of four. However, Bar Harbor contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Bar Harbor home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Bar Harbor residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Bar Harbor include English, Irish, German, French, and Italian.
The most common language spoken in Bar Harbor is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Spanish.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
is a neighborhood that is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Many times, such places have amenities that bring locals and visitors to the waterfront for recreational activities or to check out the scenery. In some densely populated areas that are less financially well-off, the neighborhood waterfront can be relatively industrial and less open to recreation. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
In addition, despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 30.6%, which is higher than 95.7% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In a nation where 1 out of every 4 children lives in poverty, the neighborhood stands out as being ranked among the lowest 0.0% of neighborhoods affected by this global issue.
In addition, if you are planning to retire in Maine, this neighborhood should be on your must-see list. For many reasons, may be considered a retiree's dream neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and metrics, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety from crime compared to other neighborhoods in Maine, while also offering a diverse range of housing options. This, along with the vibrant mix of very educated seniors and other age groups who choose to live here, makes the neighborhood more retiree-friendly than 97.0% of neighborhoods in ME. If a Maine retirement is in your future, this neighborhood should be one of the places you visit. In addition to being an excellent choice for active retirees, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for college students and highly educated executives.
More people in choose to walk to work each day (13.3%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more French and Czechoslovakian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.5% of this neighborhood's residents have French ancestry and 0.5% have Czechoslovakian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 9.3% 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 97.6% 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 Bar Harbor are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 49.7% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America'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, 66.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional 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 20.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (7.3%), and 6.5% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
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 95.1% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Spanish.
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 neighborhood in Bar Harbor, ME, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (21.2%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (18.2%), and residents who report German roots (16.6%), and some of the residents are also of French ancestry (7.5%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (7.4%), among others.
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 neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (55.0% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (56.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (13.3%) and 7.3% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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.