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!) Hays 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. Hays has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Hays than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Hays may be for you.
In Hays, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 31.32 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
Being a small town, Hays does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The citizens of Hays have a very low rate of college education: just 9.90% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, compared to a national average of 21.84% for all cities.
The per capita income in Hays in 2022 was $26,301, which is lower middle income relative to North Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $105,204 for a family of four. However, Hays contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Hays is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Hays home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Hays residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Hays also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 16.20% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Hays include Irish, Scottish, Norwegian, German, and English.
The most common language spoken in Hays is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
