White Sands is a tiny town located in the state of New Mexico. With a population of 926 people and just one neighborhood, White Sands is the 114th largest community in New Mexico. White Sands has seen a significant amount of newer housing growth in recent years. Quite often, new home construction is the result of new residents moving in who are middle class or wealthier, attracted by jobs, a healthy local economy, or other amenities as they leave nearby or far away areas for greener pastures. This seems to be the case in White Sands, where the median household income is $89,565.00.
White Sands is a military town: the armed forces employs 19.43% of the workforce, making the military a major focus of life in the city. In the civilian sector, Public Service and Education are important in the local economy and are the town’s largest civilian employers, employing 36.60% and 18.73% of the civilian workforce respectively.
For a small town, there is also a high proportion of single, often educated, people living in White Sands. This is not typical for smaller communities in America, and adds a feeling of vibrancy to White Sands.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of White Sands spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 12.35 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.
Being a small town, White Sands does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The education level of White Sands ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in White Sands, 45.28% have at least a bachelor's degree. The typical US community has just 21.84% of its adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree.
The per capita income in White Sands in 2022 was $33,378, which is upper middle income relative to New Mexico, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $133,512 for a family of four. However, White Sands contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
White Sands is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call White Sands home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of White Sands residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. White Sands also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 11.25% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in White Sands include German, English, Irish, Norwegian, and Swiss.
The most common language spoken in White Sands is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Korean.
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 White Sands, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
In addition, of particular note, 4.1% of the people in the neighborhood currently reside in a correction facility, held due to punishment for a crime.
Also, the neighborhood is a great option for families, as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's research on this neighborhood. The combination of top public schools, low crime rates, and owner-occupied single family homes, make this neighborhood among the top 8.7% of family-friendly neighborhoods in the state of New Mexico. Many other families also live here, making it easy to socialize and develop a sense of community. In addition, families here highly value education, as is reflected by the strength of the local schools. In addition to being an excellent choice for families with school-aged children, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for college students and highly educated executives.
The government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed, is that the neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 36.6% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 99.9% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Furthermore, with 19.1% of employed workers living in the neighborhood active in the military, this neighborhood has the distinction of having a higher proportion of people in the military than 99.7% of American neighborhoods. This is a major shaper of the neighborhood's culture and character.
In addition, from major sales accounts to fast-food workers, sales and service employees are often the backbone of the local economy. In the neighborhood, they truly stand out. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis identifies this neighborhood as having a higher percentage of sales and service workers than 98.7% of all American neighborhoods.
Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 87.2% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
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 1 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 99.4% of America.
In addition, renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 100.0%, which is higher than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in America. If you were to buy and live in the property you bought here, you would be almost alone in doing so.
More people in choose to walk to work each day (16.8%) 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.
Also, if your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 4.1% of residents in the neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 97.4% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Swiss and Croatian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 4.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Swiss ancestry and 0.8% have Croatian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 2.7% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Korean at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.3% of the neighborhoods in America.
Some neighborhoods have more internal cohesiveness than others. While other neighborhoods feel like a collection of strangers who just happen to live near each other. Sometimes this comes down to not only the personalities of the people in a place, but how long people have been together in that neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research has revealed some interesting things about the rootedness of people in the neighborhood. In the neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 96.3% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas.
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 White Sands are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 63.0% 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, 46.4% 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 44.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions (36.6%), and 19.1% in the military.
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 81.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Korean.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
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 White Sands, NM, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (24.6%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (21.6%), and residents who report Irish roots (15.9%), and some of the residents are also of Asian ancestry (10.6%), along with some Mexican ancestry residents (7.7%), 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 (87.2% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (61.7%) 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 (16.8%) and 14.5% 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.
