New York - Census Paints Portrait of Village of Kiryas Joel

Kiryas Joel, NY - The latest census data on the Village of Kiryas Joel shows that Hasidic community reflect its emphasis on intense religious study over secular education and careers. Just 4.5 percent of residents 25 years and older hold bachelor’s degrees, 60 percent of households have no vehicle at all, and the median income is less than $18,000.

Those figures were part of a deluge of data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau that presents detailed sketches of every place in the United States based on a compilation of survey results from 2005 to 2009.

The American Community Survey captures wide differences among communities in the Hudson Valley and Catskills, particularly between its urban areas and towns that became more affluent during the housing boom of the last decade. The $37,000 median household income in the City of Newburgh, while higher than Kiryas Joel’s, was just over half the countywide median and the lowest of the region’s four cities.

The unique cultural practices of Kiryas Joel yield a host of statistical surprises. Its large families mean that more than half the population of roughly 20,000 is under age 14, and the median age is 11.9 — less than a third of the countywide median of 36.