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Laurens, IA

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Laurens is a very small city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 1,261 people and just one neighborhood, Laurens is the 326th largest community in Iowa.

Occupations and Workforce

Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Laurens is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 46.27% of the Laurens workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Laurens is a city of production and manufacturing workers, service providers, and construction workers and builders. There are especially a lot of people living in Laurens who work in office and administrative support (12.03%), food service (8.47%), and healthcare (7.80%).

Setting & Lifestyle

Overall, Laurens’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the nation, which makes a great place to live if safety is an important concern.

It is a fairly quiet city because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Laurens has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Laurens has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Laurens than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Laurens may be for you.

As is often the case in a small city, Laurens doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.

Demographics

In Laurens, just 12.47% of people have at least a bachelor's degree, which is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%.

The per capita income in Laurens in 2018 was $27,100, which is lower middle income relative to Iowa, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $108,400 for a family of four. However, Laurens contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Laurens home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Laurens residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Laurens include German, Irish, English, Swedish, and Norwegian.

The most common language spoken in Laurens is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

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 Laurens, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Real Estate

Uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 15 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 95.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods. One of the notable things about is that it is one of the quietest neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and quantitative rating of quietness. When you are here, you will find it to be very quiet. If quiet and peaceful are your cup of tea, you may have found a great place for you.

Occupations

More people work in manufacturing and as laborers here in the neighborhood than in 96.3% of the neighborhoods in America. Despite the loss of manufacturing jobs across the nation, this neighborhood remains a place where, compared to other parts of the country, you will find many laborers and manufacturers.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Swedish and German ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 6.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Swedish ancestry and 37.7% have German ancestry.

The Neighbors

How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.

The neighbors in the neighborhood in Laurens are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 67.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 26.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 77.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.

What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.

In the neighborhood, 43.4% 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 24.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (18.2%), and 12.7% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 94.1% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (4.9%).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

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 Laurens, IA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (37.7%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (21.0%), and residents who report English roots (8.8%), and some of the residents are also of Swedish ancestry (6.8%), along with some Norwegian ancestry residents (4.8%), among others.

Getting to Work

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 (52.3% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (78.4%) 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 (11.3%) and 5.7% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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