Ghent is a tiny town located in the state of New York. With a population of 623 people and just one neighborhood, Ghent is the 845th largest community in New York. Much of the housing stock in Ghent was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.
Ghent is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Ghent is a town of professionals, construction workers and builders, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Ghent who work in computer science and math (25.32%), teaching (22.75%), and business and financial occupations (6.44%).
Also of interest is that Ghent has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
A relatively large number of people in Ghent telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 36.04% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.
In addition, Ghent is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness'. But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.
One downside of living in Ghent, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 33.03 minutes every day commuting to work.
As is often the case in a small town, Ghent doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The education level of Ghent ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in Ghent, 40.26% 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 Ghent in 2022 was $47,499, which is upper middle income relative to New York and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $189,996 for a family of four. However, Ghent contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Ghent is a very ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Ghent home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ghent residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Ghent include English, German, Italian, Irish, and Scots-Irish.
The most common language spoken in Ghent is English. Other important languages spoken here include Russian and German/Yiddish.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
If your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 3.7% of residents in the neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 97.0% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.
If you are planning to retire in New York, this neighborhood should be on your must-see list. For many reasons, may be considered a retiree's dream neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and metrics, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety from crime compared to other neighborhoods in New York, while also offering a diverse range of housing options. This, along with the vibrant mix of very educated seniors and other age groups who choose to live here, makes the neighborhood more retiree-friendly than 96.7% of neighborhoods in NY. If a New York retirement is in your future, this neighborhood should be one of the places you visit.
In addition, with more than 1.9% of residents living with a same sex partner, is truly a neighborhood that stands out from the rest in this regard. In fact, exclusive analysis by NeighborhoodScout reveals that this neighborhood has a greater concentration of same sex couples than 96.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Belgian and Danish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Belgian ancestry and 2.4% have Danish ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 16.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Italian at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.4% 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 Ghent are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 55.3% of the neighborhoods in America. With 33.2% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 84.8% of U.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, 53.0% 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 20.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (16.8%), and 9.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 87.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian, German/Yiddish and Spanish.
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 Ghent, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (24.5%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (16.1%), and residents who report Irish roots (14.5%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (10.4%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (7.1%), among others.
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 neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (32.4% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (67.4%) 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 (7.3%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.