Canaan is a very small town located in the state of New York. With a population of 1,540 people and just one neighborhood, Canaan is the 665th largest community in New York. Much of the housing stock in Canaan was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Canaan is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-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.
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 21.09% 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.
In addition, Canaan is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.
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!) Canaan 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. Canaan has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Canaan than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Canaan may be for you.
One downside of living in Canaan, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 30.90 minutes every day commuting to work.
Canaan is one of the most well-educated cities in the nation. 48.54% of adults in Canaan have at least a bachelor's degree. Compare that to the average community in America, which has just 21.84% with a bachelor's degree or higher.
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.
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 Canaan, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
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 99.0% 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.
Unpopulated, and rural, the neighborhood is one of the least crowded neighborhoods in all of America. If you like open space, no traffic, and lots of room, this neighborhood may be just what you are looking for. According to NeighborhoodScout's leading research, this neighborhood is less densely populated than 90.5% of the neighborhoods in America. 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 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 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.
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 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.