Merkel is a very small town located in the state of Texas. With a population of 2,430 people and just one neighborhood, Merkel is the 581st largest community in Texas.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Merkel is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Merkel is a town of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Merkel who work in teaching (11.69%), sales jobs (11.53%), and management occupations (9.52%).
Also of interest is that Merkel has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
In terms of college education, the citizens of Merkel rank slightly lower than the national average. 15.03% of adults 25 and older in Merkel have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, while 21.84% of adults have a 4-year degree or higher in the average American community.
The per capita income in Merkel in 2022 was $27,356, which is middle income relative to Texas, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $109,424 for a family of four. However, Merkel contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Merkel is a very ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Merkel home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Merkel residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Merkel also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 22.60% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Merkel include Irish, English, German, Scottish, and Portuguese.
The most common language spoken in Merkel is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
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 Merkel, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 11.9% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.1% of all 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 Merkel are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 42.8% of the neighborhoods in America. With 25.7% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 76.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
In the neighborhood, 33.9% 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 26.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (25.1%), and 13.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 89.0% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the neighborhood in Merkel, TX, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (16.9%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (12.8%), and residents who report English roots (10.5%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (10.4%), along with some Scots-Irish ancestry residents (2.0%), among others.
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 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (34.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans. However, there is also a significant group of residents (11.9%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (76.1%) 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 (16.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.