South Salem is a somewhat small town located in the state of New York. With a population of 7,201 people and two constituent neighborhoods, South Salem is the 288th largest community in New York.

South Salem is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 91.98% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, South Salem is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in South Salem who work in management occupations (18.46%), sales jobs (12.06%), and teaching (11.98%).

Of important note, South Salem is also a town of artists. South Salem has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape South Salem's character.

Also of interest is that South Salem has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their homes - 9.33% 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.

In addition, South Salem is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

Because of many things, South Salem 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, South Salem really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is South Salem perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, 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.

In South Salem, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 39.73 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit.

Despite being a small town, South Salem has a lot of people using the train to get to and from work every day. Most of these people on the train are using it to get to good jobs in other cities.

South Salem Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to South Salem, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. South Salem is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 62.40% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 14.96%.

The per capita income in South Salem in 2000 was $51,017, which is wealthy relative to New York and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $204,068 for a family of four. However, South Salem contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call South Salem home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in South Salem is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in South Salem include Italian, Irish, English, German, Russian, and Polish.

The most common language spoken in South Salem is English. Some people also speak Spanish.