Damascus is a very small town located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 3,699 people and just one neighborhood, Damascus is the 421st largest community in Pennsylvania.
Damascus real estate is some of the most expensive in Pennsylvania, although Damascus house values don't compare to the most expensive real estate in the U.S.
Unlike some towns, Damascus isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Damascus are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Damascus is a town of professionals, construction workers and builders, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Damascus who work in management occupations (13.66%), healthcare (9.24%), and office and administrative support (9.17%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 7.77% 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.
Another notable thing is that Damascus 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, Damascus’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
Because of many things, Damascus is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Damascus really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Damascus perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Damascus has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Damascus has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Damascus than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Damascus may be for you.
In Damascus, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 35.73 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
As is often the case in a small town, Damascus doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The education level of Damascus citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 30.27% of adults in Damascus have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Damascus in 2022 was $50,219, which is wealthy relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $200,876 for a family of four. However, Damascus contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Damascus is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Damascus home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Damascus residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Damascus include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Damascus is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.
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.
One of the notable things about is that it is one of the quietest neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and quantitative rating of quietness. When you are here, you will find it to be very quiet. If quiet and peaceful are your cup of tea, you may have found a great place for you.
In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 34.6% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 96.8% 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.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Ukrainian and Slovak ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Ukrainian ancestry and 1.4% have Slovak ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 8.8% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.5% 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 Damascus are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 47.5% of the neighborhoods in America. With 12.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 57.1% 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 neighborhood, 37.8% 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 26.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (21.1%), and 13.0% 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 89.3% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.
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 neighborhood in Damascus, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (26.7%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (20.1%), and residents who report English roots (18.2%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (9.7%), along with some Puerto Rican ancestry residents (5.6%), among others.
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 neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (38.4% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (86.4%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.