Queens, NY (Jackson Heights 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 Jackson Heights West neighborhood in Queens are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 80.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 10.5% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 51.7% 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 Jackson Heights West neighborhood, 37.1% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 28.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (18.4%), and 14.7% in manufacturing and laborer 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 Jackson Heights West neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 26.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English, Langs. of India, Chinese and Tagalog (the first language of the Philippine region).

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 Jackson Heights West neighborhood in Queens, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (53.1%). There are also a number of people of South American ancestry (11.9%), and residents who report Mexican roots (9.4%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (2.8%), along with some Puerto Rican ancestry residents (2.0%), among others. In addition, 69.0% 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 Jackson Heights West neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (33.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (59.5%) take the train to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (10.2%) and 9.7% of residents also drive alone in a private automobile 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.