Heron Lake is a tiny city located in the state of Minnesota. With a population of 601 people and just one neighborhood, Heron Lake is the 438th largest community in Minnesota. Heron Lake has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.
When you are in Heron Lake, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 40.83% of Heron Lake’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, Heron Lake is a city of service providers, transportation and shipping workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Heron Lake who work in food service (14.50%), management occupations (8.58%), and teaching (7.10%).
Heron Lake is a good choice for families with children because of several factors. Many other families with children live here, making it a place where both parents and children are more likely to develop social ties with other families. The city’s good public school district and large population of college-educated adults provide an environment conducive to academic success. Many people own their own single-family homes, providing areas for children to play and stability in the community. Finally, Heron Lake’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the country, making it one of the safest places to raise a family.
Residents will find that the city is relatively quiet. This is because it is not over-populated, and it has fewer college students, renters, and young children - all of whom can be noisy at times. So, if you're looking for a relatively peaceful place to live, Heron Lake is worth considering.
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 18.41 minutes getting to work every day.
Being a small city, Heron Lake does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The citizens of Heron Lake are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 22.57% of adults in Heron Lake having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Heron Lake in 2018 was $33,903, which is middle income relative to Minnesota, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $135,612 for a family of four. However, Heron Lake contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Heron Lake is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Heron Lake home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Heron Lake residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Heron Lake include German, Irish, Norwegian, Danish, and English.
The most common language spoken in Heron Lake is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
Uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 8 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 97.4% 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.
Each year, fewer and fewer Americans make their living as farmers, foresters, or fishers. But the neighborhood truly stands out among U.S. neighborhoods. According to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, this neighborhood has a greater proportion of farmers, foresters, or fishers than 96.6% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more German and Austrian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 58.1% of this neighborhood's residents have German ancestry and 1.9% have Austrian ancestry.
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 Heron Lake are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 62.5% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 4.2% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 67.8% of America'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, 35.2% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 32.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.9%), and 9.8% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.9% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (3.7%).
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 Heron Lake, MN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (58.1%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (10.0%), and residents who report Norwegian roots (8.5%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (5.1%), along with some Mexican ancestry residents (4.5%), 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 between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (44.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (70.8%) 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 (11.2%) and 8.4% 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.
