Staten Island is one of the most attractive larger cities for people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. This makes it a good place to live for young singles in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting their professional careers. Although Staten Island is a large city, this demographic is significant enough that young professionals will find many others like themselves here, with really good opportunities for friendships, recreation, romance, and more.
One of the nice things about Staten Island is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
One downside of living in Staten Island is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Staten Island, the average commute to work is 39.11 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the borough, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative.
Staten Island is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Staten Island really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Staten Island citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Staten Island ride the bus. Whereas in some cities one is destined to sit in traffic every morning to get to work and every evening to get home, in Staten Island a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the bus.
The citizens of Staten Island are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 35.33% of adults in Staten Island have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Staten Island in 2022 was $43,199, which is upper middle income relative to New York and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $172,796 for a family of four. However, Staten Island contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Staten Island is an extremely ethnically-diverse borough. The people who call Staten Island home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Staten Island residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Staten Island also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 18.75% of the borough’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Staten Island include Italian, Irish, German, Polish, and Russian.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Staten Island's cultural character, accounting for 24.84% of the borough’s population.
The most common language spoken in Staten Island is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
