Canaan is a very small town located in the state of New York. With a population of 1,562 people and just one neighborhood, Canaan is the 665th largest community in New York. Canaan has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.
Canaan is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Canaan is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Canaan who work in management occupations (12.47%), office and administrative support (9.70%), and healthcare (6.80%).
And if you like science, one thing you'll find is that Canaan has lots of scientists living in town - whether they be life scientists, physical scientists (like astronomers), or social scientists (like geographers!). So, if you're scientific-minded, you might like it here too.
Of important note, Canaan is also a town of artists. Canaan has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Canaan’s character.
Also of interest is that Canaan has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
A relatively large number of people in Canaan telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 21.09% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.
In addition, Canaan is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness'. But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.
The town is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Canaan has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Canaan a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
One downside of living in Canaan is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Canaan, the average commute to work is 30.90 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.
The education level of Canaan ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in Canaan, 48.54% 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 Canaan in 2022 was $58,785, which is wealthy relative to New York and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $235,140 for a family of four. However, Canaan contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Canaan home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Canaan residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Canaan include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Canaan is English. Other important languages spoken here include French and Other Asian 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.
If you are planning to retire in New York, this neighborhood should be on your must-see list. For many reasons, may be considered a retiree's dream neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and metrics, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety from crime compared to other neighborhoods in New York, while also offering a diverse range of housing options. This, along with the vibrant mix of very educated seniors and other age groups who choose to live here, makes the neighborhood more retiree-friendly than 98.7% of neighborhoods in NY. If a New York retirement is in your future, this neighborhood should be one of the places you visit. In addition to being an excellent choice for active retirees, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for highly educated executives and urban sophisticates.
Uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 43 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 90.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods. One of the notable things about is that it is one of the quietest neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and quantitative rating of quietness. When you are here, you will find it to be very quiet. If quiet and peaceful are your cup of tea, you may have found a great place for you.
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 33.0%, which is higher than 95.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Scottish and Lithuanian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 9.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Scottish ancestry and 1.1% have Lithuanian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 0.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Japanese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.1% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Canaan are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 80.1% of the neighborhoods in America. With 11.5% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 52.8% 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, 54.2% 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 17.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (14.4%), and 12.2% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.6% 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 Canaan, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (18.4%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (17.0%), and residents who report Irish roots (16.6%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (13.1%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (9.2%), among others.
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 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (30.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (65.7%) 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 (8.3%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.