Sand Fork is a tiny town located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 178 people and just one neighborhood, Sand Fork is the 256th largest community in West Virginia.
Sand Fork is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 92.50% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Sand Fork is a town of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Sand Fork who work in office and administrative support (32.50%), law enforcement and fire fighting (20.00%), and maintenance occupations (12.50%).
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 41.67% 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.
Because of many things, Sand Fork is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Sand Fork really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Sand Fork perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Sand Fork spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 16.19 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.
As is often the case in a small town, Sand Fork doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The education level of Sand Fork ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in Sand Fork, 41.38% have at least a bachelor's degree. The typical US community has just 21.84% of its adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree.
The per capita income in Sand Fork in 2022 was $21,703, which is lower middle income relative to West Virginia, and low income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $86,812 for a family of four. However, Sand Fork contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Sand Fork also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 30.36% of its population below the federal poverty line.
The people who call Sand Fork home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Sand Fork residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Sand Fork include Irish, Italian, German, English, and Scots-Irish.
The most common language spoken in Sand Fork is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and African languages.
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.
This neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 13 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 96.3% of America.
In addition, 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 32.4%, which is higher than 95.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
With a nice mix of college students, safety from crime, and decent walkability, the neighborhood rates highly as a college student friendly place to live, and one that college students and their parents may want to consider. NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that it rates more highly for a good place for college students to live than 87.2% of the neighborhoods in WV. This often also means that the area has certain amenities and services geared towards college students, from undergraduates to graduate students. In addition to being an excellent choice for college students, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for active retirees.
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 Sand Fork are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 73.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 8.5% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 54.4% of America'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, 38.5% 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 31.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (19.3%), and 10.5% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.1% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (3.8%).
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 Sand Fork, WV, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (17.4%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (10.5%), and residents who report English roots (6.9%), and some of the residents are also of Scottish ancestry (2.7%).
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 (32.8% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (72.8%) 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 (20.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.