menu

West Brookfield, MA

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





Overview


West Brookfield is a very small town located in the state of Massachusetts. With a population of 3,844 people and just one neighborhood, West Brookfield is the 270th largest community in Massachusetts. West Brookfield has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic towns.

Occupations and Workforce

West Brookfield is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, West Brookfield is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in West Brookfield who work in healthcare (14.23%), business and financial occupations (12.12%), and office and administrative support (9.40%).

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 17.56% 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.

Setting & Lifestyle

Residents will find that the town is relatively quiet. This is because it is not over-populated, and it has fewer college students, renters, and young children - all of whom can be noisy at times. So, if you're looking for a relatively peaceful place to live, West Brookfield is worth considering.

In West Brookfield, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 40.54 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

West Brookfield 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 education level of West Brookfield citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 31.23% of adults in West Brookfield have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in West Brookfield in 2022 was $42,361, which is low income relative to Massachusetts, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $169,444 for a family of four. However, West Brookfield contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call West Brookfield home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of West Brookfield residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in West Brookfield include Irish, Italian, French, English, and French Canadian.

The most common language spoken in West Brookfield is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.

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 West Brookfield, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

People

If you are planning to retire in Massachusetts, 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 Massachusetts, 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 95.0% of neighborhoods in MA. If a Massachusetts retirement is in your future, this neighborhood should be one of the places you visit.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Armenian and French Canadian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Armenian ancestry and 6.4% have French Canadian ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 10.2% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.2% of the neighborhoods in America.

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 West Brookfield are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 54.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 7.1% 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 57.6% of America'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, 46.2% 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 23.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (16.7%), and 13.9% 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 92.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.

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 West Brookfield, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (14.4%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (14.3%), and residents who report French roots (12.8%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (12.1%), along with some French Canadian ancestry residents (6.4%), 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 (50.7% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (71.8%) 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 (10.7%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


Real Estate includes:
Average Home Values
Rental Market
Housing Market Details
Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
Lifestyle & Special Character
Household Types
Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
Income & Unemployment Rate
Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
Neighborhood Crime Index
Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
Violent Crime Comparison
Schools include:
School Ratings
Schools In District
Public School Test Scores
School District Enrollment
Educational Expenditures

comparable neighborhoods nearby