Brooklyn, NY (Bensonhurst East)

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 Bensonhurst East neighborhood in Brooklyn are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 63.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 51.2% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 94.6% 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 Bensonhurst East neighborhood, 33.0% 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 22.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (22.4%), and 21.9% 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 Bensonhurst East neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 22.6% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English, Chinese, Russian and Urdu (the national language of Pakistan).

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 Bensonhurst East neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (27.8%). There are also a number of people of Mexican ancestry (15.6%), and residents who report Ukrainian roots (6.0%), and some of the residents are also of Arab ancestry (4.8%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (4.5%), among others. In addition, 56.1% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in Bensonhurst East neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (43.5% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (44.1%) take the train to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (15.4%) and 10.1% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work 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.