Afton is a tiny village located in the state of New York. With a population of 790 people and just one neighborhood, Afton is the 801st largest community in New York. Afton has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic villages.
When you are in Afton, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 44.86% of Afton’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, Afton is a village of sales and office workers, transportation and shipping workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Afton who work in office and administrative support (12.28%), sales jobs (8.02%), and teaching (4.26%).
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 8.42% 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.
Afton’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the nation, making it a very safe place to live.
It is a fairly quiet village 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!) Afton 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. Afton has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Afton than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Afton may be for you.
Being a small village, Afton does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
In Afton, just 12.70% of people have at least a bachelor's degree, which is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%.
The per capita income in Afton in 2022 was $26,237, which is low income relative to New York, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $104,948 for a family of four. However, Afton contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Afton home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Afton residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Afton include English, Irish, German, Italian, and Lithuanian.
The most common language spoken in Afton is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
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.
More people work in manufacturing and as laborers here in the neighborhood than in 97.9% of the neighborhoods in America. Despite the loss of manufacturing jobs across the nation, this neighborhood remains a place where, compared to other parts of the country, you will find many laborers and manufacturers.
If you're planning where to retire, the neighborhood in Afton is a great option to consider. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive retirement dream area analysis, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety ratings compared to other neighborhoods in NY, offers a wide range of housing options, and has already attracted an enviable mix of college educated seniors. This neighborhood ranks as better for retirement living than 88.5% of the neighborhoods in New York. If you are considering retiring to New York, this is a good neighborhood to look at.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Lithuanian and Danish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Lithuanian ancestry and 2.8% have Danish ancestry.
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 Afton are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 46.9% of the neighborhoods in America. With 20.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 70.0% 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, 46.7% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 28.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.4%), and 7.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.3% of households.
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Afton, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (23.4%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (20.4%), and residents who report Irish roots (15.2%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (9.3%), along with some French ancestry residents (4.9%), 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 between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (33.7% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (82.3%) 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 (11.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.