Belhaven is a very small coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 1,406 people and just one neighborhood, Belhaven is the 359th largest community in North Carolina.
Belhaven is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Belhaven is a town of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Belhaven who work in management occupations (11.16%), office and administrative support (10.71%), and food service (8.93%).
Also of interest is that Belhaven has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
A relatively large number of people in Belhaven telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 12.95% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.
Belhaven 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.
Being a small town, Belhaven does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The percentage of people in Belhaven with college degrees is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%: just 12.59% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Belhaven in 2022 was $24,080, which is low income relative to North Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $96,320 for a family of four. However, Belhaven contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Belhaven also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 40.32% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Belhaven is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Belhaven home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Belhaven residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Belhaven also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.40% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Belhaven include English, Irish, German, Dutch, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Belhaven is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Greek.
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.
The neighborhood stands out for having an average per capita income lower than 96.4% of the neighborhoods in the United States. The neighborhood also has a greater percentage of children living in poverty (69.8%) than found in 98.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Children living in poverty is one of the challenges facing America, and the world, and in this neighborhood in particular, the problem can be considered acute.
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. 11.8% 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 97.2% of all neighborhoods in America.
It used to be that most Americans lived on the farm, or otherwise made their living from the land, the forests, or the sea. With global trade and an economy increasingly based on providing services to one another, fewer people farm, fish or harvest timber now than at any time in American history. But according to NeighborhoodScout's leading analysis, the neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 3.4% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 95.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Scots-Irish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Scots-Irish ancestry.
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 neighborhood in Belhaven are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 96.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 69.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 98.5% 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, 32.5% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 27.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (19.6%), and 17.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 94.4% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (5.0%).
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 Belhaven, NC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (5.7%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (5.2%), and residents who report Mexican roots (4.3%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (3.3%), along with some Scots-Irish ancestry residents (2.9%), 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 (46.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America. However, there is also a significant group of residents (11.8%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (72.9%) 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 (7.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.