In addition, Summit is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates", which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.
Because of many things, Summit 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, Summit really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Summit 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.
One downside of living in Summit, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 31.89 minutes every day commuting to work. However, local public transit is widely used. For those who would prefer to avoid driving entirely and leave their car at home, it may be an option to use the transit instead.
Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Summit is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the train helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Summit area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.
Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Summit, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Summit is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 72.73% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84%.
The per capita income in Summit in 2022 was $110,417, which is wealthy relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $441,668 for a family of four.
Summit is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Summit home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Summit residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Summit also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.04% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Summit include Irish, Italian, German, English, and Polish.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Summit's cultural character, accounting for 17.40% of the city’s population.
The most common language spoken in Summit is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
