North Canaan is a very small town located in the state of Connecticut. With a population of 3,204 people and just one neighborhood, North Canaan is the 146th largest community in Connecticut. North Canaan has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic towns.
Unlike some towns, North Canaan isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in North Canaan are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, North Canaan is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in North Canaan who work in sales jobs (12.11%), management occupations (9.52%), and maintenance occupations (8.23%).
Also of interest is that North Canaan 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 home: 7.67% 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.
North Canaan is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The citizens of North Canaan are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 22.15% of adults in North Canaan having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in North Canaan in 2022 was $39,156, which is low income relative to Connecticut, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $156,624 for a family of four. However, North Canaan contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
North Canaan is a very ethnically-diverse town. The people who call North Canaan home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of North Canaan residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. North Canaan also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.01% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in North Canaan include Irish, English, Italian, German, and French.
The most common language spoken in North Canaan is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.
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.
Each year, fewer and fewer Americans make their living as farmers, foresters, or fishers. But the neighborhood truly stands out among U.S. neighborhoods. According to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, this neighborhood has a greater proportion of farmers, foresters, or fishers than 95.4% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Danish and British ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 4.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Danish ancestry and 2.3% have British ancestry.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in North Canaan are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 64.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 40.7% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 89.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the neighborhood, 30.8% 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 27.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (24.4%), and 13.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 86.9% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (11.9%).
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in North Canaan, CT, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (20.9%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (18.6%), and residents who report Italian roots (14.2%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (12.4%), along with some German ancestry residents (8.7%), among others.
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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (51.7% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (76.6%) 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 (8.1%) and 7.7% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work 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.