San Rafael is a very small town located in the state of New Mexico. With a population of 1,164 people and just one neighborhood, San Rafael is the largest community in New Mexico.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, San Rafael is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, San Rafael is a town of service providers, construction workers and builders, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in San Rafael who work in personal care services (37.41%), management occupations (17.48%), and office and administrative support (15.38%).
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 15.38% 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.
Overall, San Rafael’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the nation, which makes a great place to live if safety is an important concern.
Residents will find that the town is relatively quiet. This is because it is not over-populated, and it has fewer college students, renters, and young children - all of whom can be noisy at times. So, if you're looking for a relatively peaceful place to live, San Rafael is worth considering.
One downside of living in San Rafael, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 32.60 minutes every day commuting to work.
San Rafael 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 San Rafael has a very low overall level of education: only 9.68% of people over 25 hold a 4-year college degree or higher.
The per capita income in San Rafael in 2022 was $32,521, which is middle income relative to New Mexico and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $130,084 for a family of four.
San Rafael is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call San Rafael home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of San Rafael residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. San Rafael also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 22.04% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in San Rafael include European, Irish, French, German, and Yugoslavian.
The most common language spoken in San Rafael is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Native American languages.
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in San Rafael, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
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 14.4% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 99.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Unpopulated, and rural, the neighborhood is one of the least crowded neighborhoods in all of America. If you like open space, no traffic, and lots of room, this neighborhood may be just what you are looking for. According to NeighborhoodScout's leading research, this neighborhood is less densely populated than 99.1% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 39.9%, which is higher than 97.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 97.2% of all neighborhoods in America, with 36.4% of the occupied housing here being classified as mobile homes. So if you are looking for a mobile home, or you like the look and feel of mobile home parks, this neighborhood might have the setting you desire.
Of particular note, 13.7% of the people in the neighborhood currently reside in a correction facility, held due to punishment for a crime.
In addition, of note, 53.8% of the children in this area live in poverty; an extraordinarily high percentage compared to other neighborhoods in the nation. In a nation where approximately one in four children grows up in poverty, this neighborhood stands out for the depth of the problem manifested here.
Also, if you're nearing retirement age, or in retirement, the is an excellent choice for you to consider for top-quality retirement living. This neighborhood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as among the top 7.0% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in New Mexico, combining peace and quiet, safety from crime, and offering diverse housing options from which retirees can choose. Maybe it's because of these amenities that a large proportion of the residents here are college educated seniors, mixed with other age groups. For these and other reasons, NeighborhoodScout identifies this neighborhood as a top-notch place to consider if you are thinking of or planning to retire in New Mexico.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Native American and Swiss ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 16.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Native American ancestry and 3.8% have Swiss ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.5% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Native American languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.5% 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 San Rafael are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 64.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 53.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 95.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 29.4% 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 25.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (17.4%), and 14.4% in farming, forestry, or commercial fishing.
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 neighborhood is English, spoken by 88.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Native American languages.
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 neighborhood in San Rafael, NM, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (19.2%). There are also a number of people of Native American ancestry (16.5%), and residents who report Irish roots (13.9%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (8.8%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (7.3%), 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 (50.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (61.7%) 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 (22.2%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
