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West Decatur, PA

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





Overview


West Decatur is a tiny town located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 453 people and just one neighborhood, West Decatur is the 1001st largest community in Pennsylvania. Much of the housing stock in West Decatur was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, West Decatur is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, West Decatur is a town of sales and office workers, service providers, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in West Decatur who work in sales jobs (28.34%), healthcare (9.72%), and food service (9.31%).

Setting & Lifestyle

It is a fairly quiet town 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!) West Decatur 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. West Decatur has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in West Decatur than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, West Decatur may be for you.

Being a small town, West Decatur does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Demographics

In terms of college education, West Decatur ranks among the least educated cities in the nation, as only 2.69% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.

The per capita income in West Decatur in 2018 was $17,750, which is low income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $71,000 for a family of four. West Decatur also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 37.63% of its population below the federal poverty line.

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

The most common language spoken in West Decatur is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish 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 West Decatur, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Real Estate

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.

Migration / Stability

Some neighborhoods have more internal cohesiveness than others. While other neighborhoods feel like a collection of strangers who just happen to live near each other. Sometimes this comes down to not only the personalities of the people in a place, but how long people have been together in that neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research has revealed some interesting things about the rootedness of people in the neighborhood. More residents of the neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 97.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.

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 West Decatur are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 68.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 19.5% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 68.1% 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, 31.4% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 26.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (24.0%), and 16.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.2% of households.

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 West Decatur, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (20.5%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (9.1%), and residents who report English roots (8.4%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (4.2%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (4.2%), 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 between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (36.8% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (85.9%) 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 (9.1%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


Real Estate includes:
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Economics & Demographics include:
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Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
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Crime includes:
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Schools include:
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