This is a small community in a single neighborhood.
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What do we mean by a neighborhood?
NeighborhoodScout® uses the official government designation for neighborhoods - the census tract.
Census tracts are small, relatively permanent subdivisions of a county that are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in conjunction with local authorities all across the country to define real neighborhoods that are bounded to contain areas with homogeneous population characteristics (including economic status, lifestyle, and living conditions). Census tracts usually have 4,000 persons, but can range between 1,500 and 8,000 persons. This is the most fine-grained area for which detailed information is made available from the government, to protect the individual privacy of each of us. Because census tracts are based on population, they vary in size depending on the density of settlement. In urban areas, they are small, and in rural areas they can cover an entire small town or even a few small towns in very rural areas.
Since census tracts are subdivisions of a county, we did a spatial overlay of the census tracts onto city and town boundaries using a geographic information system to properly assign each census tract to its appropriate city or town. Then we named each census tract to the local colloquially recognized neighborhood name for that spot (e.g., Boston, MA (Dorchester). If there was not a name available, we named the census tract by the largest street intersection in the census tract (e.g., Worcester, MA (Lincoln St/Plantation St)
Why we don't use Zip Codes as neighborhoods
Zip codes were developed by the Postal Service for the purpose of delivering mail, but were never intended to define coherent neighborhoods. In addition, Zip Codes can have as many as 10 distinctly different census tracts contained within them. When distinct census tracts are blended together in a single Zip Code, the data reflects their average conditions and often gives a false sense of the area. The result is that potentially great matching neighborhoods can be missed, and erroneous matches can also be produced and delivered to you.
Using census tracts makes great matches possible, and helps people find the areas that are best for them and their families. Because we are committed to providing the highest possible quality and finding the neighborhoods that best meet your criteria, we use census tracts. And, as always, we show you the actual street map of the neighborhood so you know exactly where your best matching neighborhood is located.
What is a Condition Alert?
A condition alert is a condition in the neighborhood that triggers an alert. NeighborhoodScout contains condition alerts to highlight conditions that are extreme, whether good or bad. This helps answer crucial questions about the state of the neighborhood being evaluated, such as:
What are the risks of violent crime here?
Is the risk of home break-ins or other property crimes increasing?
Does real estate here hold its value?
Are the trends in local vacancies or unemployment concerning?
...and dozens more.
Information at a glance that you need to know to invest, appraise or finance a property.
Wadena is a very small city located in the state of Minnesota. With a population of 4,352 people and just one neighborhood, Wadena is the 175th largest community in Minnesota. There's nothing like the smell of a brand new house, and in Wadena, you'll find that a large proportion of houses were recently built. New growth in residential real estate is an indication that people are choosing to move to Wadena, and putting down their money on brand new construction. Wadena’s real estate is, on average, some of the newest in the nation. Wadena does seem to be experiencing an influx of affluent people, because the median household income is $70,000.00.
Occupations and Workforce
Wadena is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 92.31% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Wadena is a city of service providers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Wadena who work in sales jobs (25.64%), healthcare suport services (14.10%), and business and financial occupations (12.82%).
Of important note, Wadena is also a city of artists. Wadena has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Wadena’s character.
Setting & Lifestyle
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!) Wadena 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. Wadena has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Wadena than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Wadena may be for you.
Wadena is a very car-oriented city. 100.00% of residents commute to work in a private automobile rather than by other means, such as public transit, bicycling, or walking. This is because Wadena is a small city , and most people who live here have to drive out of town for work, and the town population is not large nor dense enough to support an extensive public transportation system. Wadena has a lot of rural roads, and houses can be far apart. Many residents drive out of town for regular shopping trips as well.
Wadena is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
Demographics
The percentage of adults in Wadena who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 19.61% of the adults in Wadena have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Wadena in 2018 was $48,669, which is wealthy relative to Minnesota and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $194,676 for a family of four. However, Wadena contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Wadena home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Wadena residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Wadena include German, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Irish.
The most common language spoken in Wadena is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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.
Occupations
It used to be that most Americans lived on the farm, or otherwise made their living from the land, the forests, or the sea. With global trade and an economy increasingly based on providing services to one another, fewer people farm, fish or harvest timber now than at any time in American history. But according to NeighborhoodScout's leading analysis, the neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 6.9% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 98.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the neighborhood stands out nationally for having a greater proportion of its residents active in the military than 95.0% of other U.S. neighborhoods. If you come here, you will notice military people active in their jobs, going to and from work, and in plain clothes out and about the neighborhood.
Length of Commute
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. 64.9% 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 97.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
Diversity
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Finnish and Norwegian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 12.8% have Norwegian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Greek at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Wadena are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 80.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 16.0% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 62.1% 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, 31.5% 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 23.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (20.6%), and 17.5% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
Languages
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 95.6% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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 Wadena, MN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (36.5%). There are also a number of people of Norwegian ancestry (12.8%), and residents who report Finnish roots (7.1%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (5.8%), along with some English ancestry residents (5.4%), among others.
Getting to Work
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (64.9% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (80.7%) 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 (8.5%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
SCOUT’s patented match algorithm identifies the most similar neighborhoods to a subject location, and quantifies the similarity to the subject location. This allows analysts to identify the most similar neighborhoods in a local market area for appraisals, investments, and research.
The algorithm uses 273 neighborhood conditions, identifies the dominant dimensions underlying the conditions and calculates the similarity. This captures the true culture and character of locations, economic conditions, and trends.
The closer to 100% means the locations are nearly identical. 80% is a very good, but not excellent match, and so forth.
