Brooklyn, NY (Brownsville)

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 Brownsville neighborhood in Brooklyn are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 91.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 59.7% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 97.0% 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 Brownsville neighborhood, 34.7% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer 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 28.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (21.6%), and 15.2% 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 Brownsville neighborhood is English, spoken by 76.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.

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 Brownsville neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Jamaican (10.3%). There are also a number of people of Haitian ancestry (6.2%), and residents who report Asian roots (6.1%), and some of the residents are also of Puerto Rican ancestry (5.2%), along with some Dominican ancestry residents (3.8%), among others. In addition, 22.2% 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 Brownsville neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (42.0% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (47.7%) take the train to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (17.6%) and 14.4% of residents also ride the bus 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.