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Sterling, NY

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Sterling is a very small town located in the state of New York. With a population of 3,166 people and just one neighborhood, Sterling is the 452nd largest community in New York. Sterling has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.

Occupations and Workforce

Sterling is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Sterling is a town of service providers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Sterling who work in management occupations (14.63%), food service (11.04%), and office and administrative support (9.21%).

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.17% 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.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that Sterling is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the town experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller town.

Sterling’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the nation, making it a very safe place to live.

One downside of living in Sterling, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 31.77 minutes every day commuting to work.

Sterling 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.

Demographics

The overall education level of Sterling is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 21.84%: 25.13% of adults 25 and older in the town have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Sterling in 2022 was $29,667, which is lower middle income relative to New York, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $118,668 for a family of four. However, Sterling contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Sterling home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Sterling residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Sterling include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Dutch.

The most common language spoken in Sterling is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Sterling, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Real Estate

Despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 35.6%, which is higher than 96.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

People

If you're planning where to retire, the neighborhood in Sterling 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 85.7% of the neighborhoods in New York. If you are considering retiring to New York, this is a good neighborhood to look at.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Dutch and French Canadian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 6.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Dutch ancestry and 3.3% have French Canadian ancestry.

The Neighbors

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 Sterling are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 69.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 35.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 86.1% 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, 38.1% 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 26.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (23.6%), and 11.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

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 Sterling, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (18.1%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (17.7%), and residents who report Irish roots (16.3%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (10.7%), along with some Dutch ancestry residents (6.0%), among others.

Getting to Work

How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (29.2% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (79.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (6.5%) and 5.7% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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.


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Economics & Demographics include:
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Race & Ethnic Diversity
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Crime includes:
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Schools include:
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