Brooklyn, NY (Bedford Stuyvesant West)

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 Bedford Stuyvesant West neighborhood in Brooklyn are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 50.8% of the neighborhoods in America. With 52.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 95.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.

A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.

In the Bedford Stuyvesant West neighborhood, 66.8% 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 18.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (8.8%), and 6.1% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

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 Bedford Stuyvesant West neighborhood is English, spoken by 68.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include German/Yiddish, African languages, Spanish and Chinese.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.

In the Bedford Stuyvesant West neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (8.6%). There are also a number of people of Jamaican ancestry (8.4%), and residents who report Italian roots (6.2%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (6.0%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (5.8%), among others. In addition, 13.0% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

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 Bedford Stuyvesant West neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (38.9% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (39.5%) take the train to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (16.0%) and 7.9% of residents also bicycle for their daily commute. This neighborhood is distinguished by the high number of residents who take the train to work each day, which can be a very good way to get to work at a lower cost and with less pollution.