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West Brookfield, MA

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





Overview


West Brookfield is a very small town located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 3,817 people and just one neighborhood, West Brookfield is the 270th largest community in Massachusetts. West Brookfield has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic towns.

Occupations and Workforce

West Brookfield is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, West Brookfield is a town of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in West Brookfield who work in healthcare (12.42%), business and financial occupations (12.26%), and office and administrative support (11.34%).

A relatively large number of people in West Brookfield telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 15.84% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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

Overall, West Brookfield’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the nation, which makes a great place to live if safety is an important concern.

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!) West Brookfield 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. West Brookfield has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in West Brookfield than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, West Brookfield may be for you.

In West Brookfield, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 37.61 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

As is often the case in a small town, West Brookfield doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.

Demographics

The overall education level of West Brookfield citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 29.61% of adults in West Brookfield have at least a bachelor's degree, and the average American community has 21.84%.

The per capita income in West Brookfield in 2018 was $41,105, which is low income relative to Massachusetts, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $164,420 for a family of four. However, West Brookfield contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call West Brookfield home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of West Brookfield residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in West Brookfield include Irish, Italian, French, Polish, and English.

The most common language spoken in West Brookfield is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Russian.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in West Brookfield, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

People

If you're nearing retirement age, or in retirement, the is an excellent choice for you to consider for top-quality retirement living. This neighborhood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as among the top 5.5% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in Massachusetts, combining peace and quiet, safety from crime, and offering diverse housing options from which retirees can choose. Maybe it's because of these amenities that a large proportion of the residents here are college educated seniors, mixed with other age groups. For these and other reasons, NeighborhoodScout identifies this neighborhood as a top-notch place to consider if you are thinking of or planning to retire in Massachusetts.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more French and Greek ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 14.9% of this neighborhood's residents have French ancestry and 4.1% have Greek ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 10.2% 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 98.2% of the neighborhoods in America.

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 West Brookfield are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 67.9% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 6.2% 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 60.8% 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, 40.0% 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 22.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (22.1%), and 15.0% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.6% of households. Some people also speak Polish (10.2%).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

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 West Brookfield, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (17.6%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (15.7%), and residents who report French roots (14.9%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (9.8%), along with some English ancestry residents (9.7%), 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 (44.8% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (66.9%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (15.6%) . 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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