Shaftsbury is a very small town located in the state of Vermont. With a population of 3,593 people and just one neighborhood, Shaftsbury is the 58th largest community in Vermont.
Unlike some towns, Shaftsbury isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Shaftsbury are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Shaftsbury is a town of professionals, managers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Shaftsbury who work in management occupations (15.75%), teaching (9.57%), and healthcare (7.27%).
Also of interest is that Shaftsbury has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Shaftsbury is a good choice for families with children because of several factors. Many other families with children live here, making it a place where both parents and children are more likely to develop social ties with other families. The town’s good public school district and large population of college-educated adults provide an environment conducive to academic success. Many people own their own single-family homes, providing areas for children to play and stability in the community. Finally, Shaftsbury’s overall crime rate is lower than average for the country.
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!) Shaftsbury 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. Shaftsbury has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Shaftsbury than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Shaftsbury may be for you.
Being a small town, Shaftsbury does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The citizens of Shaftsbury are among the most well-educated in the nation: 40.94% of adults in Shaftsbury have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Shaftsbury in 2022 was $48,692, which is upper middle income relative to Vermont, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $194,768 for a family of four. However, Shaftsbury contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Shaftsbury home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Shaftsbury residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Shaftsbury include Irish, English, German, French, and Italian.
The most common language spoken in Shaftsbury is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and African languages.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
In the neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 10.8% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 95.4% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Swiss and French ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Swiss ancestry and 10.8% have French ancestry.
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 Shaftsbury are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 59.6% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 4.9% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 64.0% of America'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, 46.0% 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 25.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (15.7%), and 12.5% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.8% of households. Some people also speak Polish (2.5%).
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 neighborhood in Shaftsbury, VT, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (15.0%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (13.5%), and residents who report German roots (12.7%), and some of the residents are also of French ancestry (10.8%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (6.4%), 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 (44.2% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
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 (10.8%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.