Newport News, VA (River / Downtown)

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 River / Downtown neighborhood in Newport News are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 71.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 26.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 78.5% 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 River / Downtown neighborhood, 36.8% 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 30.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (25.1%), and 7.8% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the River / Downtown neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.1% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (3.1%).

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 River / Downtown neighborhood in Newport News, VA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (10.3%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (8.9%), and residents who report Mexican roots (8.9%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (7.4%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (2.1%), 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 River / Downtown neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (43.1% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (40.2%) 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 (22.1%) and 9.4% 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.