Shirley is a medium-sized coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New York. With a population of 26,360 people and six associated neighborhoods, Shirley is the 66th largest community in New York.Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Shirley is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Shirley is a town of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Shirley who work in office and administrative support (11.03%), sales jobs (8.77%), and management occupations (7.73%). Shirley is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery. In Shirley, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 34.24 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. In terms of college education, Shirley is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 19.47% of adults 25 and older in Shirley have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in Shirley in 2022 was $48,537, which is upper middle income relative to New York, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $194,148 for a family of four. However, Shirley contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Shirley is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Shirley home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Shirley residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Shirley also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 23.44% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Shirley include Italian, Irish, German, Polish, and English. The most common language spoken in Shirley is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
