Fountain is a tiny town located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 389 people and just one neighborhood, Fountain is the 512th largest community in North Carolina.
Fountain is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Fountain is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Fountain who work in office and administrative support (19.23%), management occupations (18.46%), and law enforcement and fire fighting (9.23%).
And if you like science, one thing you'll find is that Fountain 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.
A relatively large number of people in Fountain telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 9.76% 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.
Fountain is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The population of Fountain overall has a level of education that is slightly above the US average for all US cities and towns of 21.84%. Of adults 25 and older in Fountain, 23.26% have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Fountain in 2022 was $17,800, which is low income relative to North Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $71,200 for a family of four. However, Fountain contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Fountain also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 57.70% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Fountain is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Fountain home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Fountain residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Fountain include English, Irish, German, Italian, and Scots-Irish.
The most common language spoken in Fountain is English. Other important languages spoken here include French and Italian.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
The neighborhood stands out nationally for having a greater proportion of its residents active in the military than 99.2% of other U.S. neighborhoods. If you come here, you will notice military people active in their jobs, going to and from work, and in plain clothes out and about the neighborhood.
Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. 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. 13.8% 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 98.3% of all neighborhoods in America.
One of the really interesting characteristics about the neighborhood is that, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research, it is an excellent choice in which to reside for college students. Due to its popularity among college students who already choose to live here, its walkability, and its above average safety from crime, the neighborhood is ideal for prospective or already-enrolled college students. Between semesters and during school breaks, you'll notice that the excitement here fluctuates with the college seasons. Despite the excitement however, parents of college-age children can rest easy knowing that this neighborhood has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 4.3% of college-friendly places to live in the state of North Carolina.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's analysis shows that the neighborhood has a greater concentration of residents currently enrolled in college than 95.1% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. With 10.4% of the population here attending college, this is very much a college-focused neighborhood.
This neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 44 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 90.2% of America.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Sub-Saharan African ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 11.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Sub-Saharan African 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 Fountain are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 73.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 26.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 78.1% 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, 33.4% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 33.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (17.9%), and 14.9% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 89.0% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (10.0%).
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 Fountain, NC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (11.7%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (7.4%), and residents who report German roots (6.6%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (5.1%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (3.6%), 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 between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (38.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans. However, there is also a significant group of residents (13.8%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (80.1%) 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 (10.1%) and 6.4% 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.