Cresco is a very small city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 3,897 people and just one neighborhood, Cresco is the 121st largest community in Iowa. Much of the housing stock in Cresco was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.
Cresco is a blue-collar town, with 40.82% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Cresco is a city of sales and office workers, production and manufacturing workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Cresco who work in office and administrative support (10.16%), sales jobs (9.30%), and management occupations (7.70%).
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 8.97% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 17.43 minutes getting to work every day.
As is often the case in a small city, Cresco doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
In terms of college education, Cresco is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 19.94% of adults 25 and older in Cresco have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Cresco in 2022 was $28,660, which is low income relative to Iowa, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $114,640 for a family of four. However, Cresco contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Cresco home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Cresco residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Cresco include German, Norwegian, Czech, Irish, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Cresco is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
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. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 66.0% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Norwegian and German ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 16.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Norwegian ancestry and 36.7% have German ancestry.
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 Cresco are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 68.6% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 15.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 62.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the neighborhood, 39.7% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 27.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (18.4%), and 13.6% 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 97.3% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Cresco, IA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (36.7%). There are also a number of people of Norwegian ancestry (16.9%), and residents who report Irish roots (8.4%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (4.9%), along with some English ancestry residents (2.5%), among others.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (66.0% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (81.1%) 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 (6.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.