Midtown Manhattan, including neighborhoods Chelsea and Clinton, has some interesting housing trends.  About 60% of all property is worth over half a million dollars.  Although most housing units are rented, an overwhelming majority of residents pay over $1500 per month.  Interestingly, over 70% of Chelsea/Clinton’s residents live in a housing unit that includes 3 rooms or less.  In general, about 47% of all “houses” consist of only 1 bedroom and 20% consist of 2 bedrooms while 25% consist of “no bedrooms”, also known as studio apartments.      In other words, it is more common to live in an apartment with no bedrooms than one with 2 bedrooms in this neighborhood.  This came as a surprise as Chelsea is not a college neighborhood where it would be typical to have very little families and more people living alone.  To find out what kind of people live there, we decided to take a look at the social aspect of the neighborhood.

Though a majority of Chelsea residents are native to the U.S., 26% (over a quarter) are foreign born and of these foreigners, only 45% are naturalized citizens.  In addition, 11% of the population (both native and foreign) was living in another country 1 year ago.  From this, it seems that though diverse, a significant part of Chelsea/Clinton residents are people working and/or constantly moving around.  Using Social Explorer’s map, we found that unlike nearby neighborhoods, such as the Upper West Side, which are 60-80% white, Chelsea consists of a much more diverse population, about 60-30% white.  This led us to conclude that the non-white population in Chelsea is primarily non-married and contributes greatly to the neighborhoods non-married population.  Basically, a major reason for Chelsea/Clinton’s lack of families is the working, white-collar immigrant population living there.

As mentioned before, the white population is the dominant group to compose Chelsea/Clinton. Currently, however, there has been a heavy influx of Asian population immigrating into the community, according to the New York Times Census.  A distinct social element of both these ethnic groups is that those who live with another person almost always live with a non-relative (not including a non-married partner).  In other words, a person is more likely to be living with a roomate than with a spouse or child. Again, nonfamily households outnumber family households by more than a two to one ratio, as more than a majority of the residents are unmarried. This further explains why 1-bedroom/no bedroom apartments are the most common units since the number of married couples living in this neighborhood is sparse.

Another important social aspect to note is that more than 2/3 of Chelsea/Clinton’s inhabitants have an undergraduate degree or higher and a staggering 93% of all citizens have a high school education as well.

It is therefore reasonable to understand that the majority of Chelsea’s residents have white-collar jobs such as management, business, and science occupations. These statistics can now explain why residents are able to afford such high valued real estate along with the fact that most do not have to divert their resources to raising a family. Consequently, this predominantly educated district displays an assimilated and well-backgrounded body of workers.

Seeing housing from a social perspective helps us paint a picture of the people who live in Manhattan’s neighborhood of Chelsea/Clinton.  Like the rest of New York City, this neighborhood houses a unique and diverse population.  However, Chelsea is also shown to have a particular group of people making up a large part of its community: A well-educated, working, and non-married population (composed of both native and foreign).