In Brockton, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 30.56 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. In addition, the city is also quite pedestrian-friendly, because many neighborhoods are very dense and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.
Like elsewhere in America, most people in Brockton use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of Brockton‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding taxis. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.
The education level of Brockton citizens, measured as those with bachelor's degrees or advanced degrees, is similar to the national average for all American cities and towns. 20.66% of adults 25 and older in Brockton have a college degree.
The per capita income in Brockton in 2018 was $34,180, which is low income relative to Massachusetts, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $136,720 for a family of four. However, Brockton contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Brockton is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Brockton home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Brockton residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Brockton also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.30% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Brockton include Cape Verdean, Haitian, Irish, Italian, and English.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Brockton's cultural character, accounting for 32.27% of the city’s population.
The most common language spoken in Brockton is English. Other important languages spoken here include French and Portuguese.
