Thoreau is a very small town located in the state of New Mexico. With a population of 2,367 people and just one neighborhood, Thoreau is the 67th largest community in New Mexico.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Thoreau is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Thoreau is a town of sales and office workers, service providers, and construction workers and builders. There are especially a lot of people living in Thoreau who work in office and administrative support (19.26%), sales jobs (8.97%), and healthcare (7.50%).
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 17.21% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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.
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!) Thoreau 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. Thoreau has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Thoreau than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Thoreau may be for you.
In Thoreau, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 36.30 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
As is often the case in a small town, Thoreau doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
In terms of college education, Thoreau ranks among the least educated cities in the nation, as only 5.74% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Thoreau in 2022 was $15,845, which is low income relative to New Mexico and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $63,380 for a family of four. However, Thoreau contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Thoreau also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 49.85% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Thoreau is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Thoreau home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Thoreau residents report their race to be Native American, followed by White. Thoreau also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 31.94% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Thoreau include Danish, African, German, Irish, and Yugoslavian.
The most common language spoken in Thoreau is English. Other important languages spoken here include Navajo and Native American languages.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
One of the unique characteristics of the neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 95.2% of the neighborhoods in America. The neighborhood also has a greater percentage of children living in poverty (72.3%) than found in 98.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods. Children living in poverty is one of the challenges facing America, and the world, and in this neighborhood in particular, the problem can be considered acute.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's exclusive research revealed that 93.1% of the adult residents in the neighborhood do not have a 4-year college degree, which is a lower rate of college graduated adults than found in 95.3% of the neighborhoods in America.
The real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 98.1% of all neighborhoods in America, with 42.5% of the occupied housing here being classified as mobile homes. So if you are looking for a mobile home, or you like the look and feel of mobile home parks, this neighborhood might have the setting you desire.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Native American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 67.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Native American ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 54.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Native American languages at home. This is a higher percentage than 99.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
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 Thoreau are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 95.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 72.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 98.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the neighborhood, 32.7% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 23.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (22.5%), and 21.8% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is Native American languages, spoken by 54.6% of households. Some people also speak English (51.9%).
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 Thoreau, NM, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Native American (67.1%). There are also a number of people of Mexican ancestry (28.7%), and residents who report Danish roots (1.5%).
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 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (35.8% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (73.7%) 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 (5.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.