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Sterling, NY

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Sterling is a very small town located in the state of New York. With a population of 3,202 people and just one neighborhood, Sterling is the 452nd largest community in New York. Much of the housing stock in Sterling was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some towns, Sterling isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Sterling are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Sterling is a town of service providers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Sterling who work in management occupations (14.63%), food service (11.04%), and office and administrative support (9.21%).

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.17% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that Sterling is a major vacation destination. Much of the town’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Sterling’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.

In Sterling, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 31.77 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

Being a small town, Sterling does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Demographics

The overall education level of Sterling is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 21.84%: 25.13% of adults 25 and older in the town have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Sterling in 2022 was $29,667, which is lower middle income relative to New York, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $118,668 for a family of four. However, Sterling contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Sterling home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Sterling residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Sterling include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Dutch.

The most common language spoken in Sterling is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

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.

Real Estate

Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 35.6% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 96.6% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Dutch and French Canadian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 6.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Dutch ancestry and 3.3% have French Canadian ancestry.

The Neighbors

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 Sterling are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 69.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 35.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 86.1% 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 neighborhood, 38.1% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 26.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (23.6%), and 11.4% 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 neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

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 Sterling, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (18.1%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (17.7%), and residents who report Irish roots (16.3%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (10.7%), along with some Dutch ancestry residents (6.0%), among others.

Getting to Work

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 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (29.2% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (79.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (6.5%) and 5.7% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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