Taft is a very small city located in the state of Texas. With a population of 2,869 people and just one neighborhood, Taft is the 540th largest community in Texas.
When you are in Taft, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 37.54% of Taft’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, Taft is a city of service providers, construction workers and builders, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Taft who work in sales jobs (11.11%), healthcare suport services (10.81%), and maintenance occupations (8.61%).
As is often the case in a small city, Taft doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The citizens of Taft have a very low rate of college education: just 9.75% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, compared to a national average of 21.84% for all cities.
The per capita income in Taft in 2022 was $20,915, which is low income relative to Texas and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $83,660 for a family of four. However, Taft contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Taft is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Taft home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Taft, accounting for 80.69% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Taft residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Taft include German, English, Irish, Swedish, and Norwegian.
The most common language spoken in Taft is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and German/Yiddish.
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 Taft, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
The neighborhood is unique for having just 6.8% of adults here having earned a bachelor's degree. This is a lower rate of college graduates than NeighborhoodScout found in 95.4% of America's neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 81.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry.
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 Taft are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 77.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 31.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 82.5% 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, 41.0% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 25.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (16.6%), and 16.6% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 54.7% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (45.2%).
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 Taft, TX, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (81.8%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (6.5%), and residents who report English roots (1.5%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (1.3%).
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 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (33.7% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (88.6%) 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 (5.7%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.