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Willow, AK

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



Overview

Willow is a very small town located in the state of Alaska. With a population of 2,196 people and just one neighborhood, Willow is the 34th largest community in Alaska.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some towns, Willow isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Willow are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Willow is a town of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Willow who work in management occupations (13.16%), sales jobs (12.02%), and office and administrative support (8.44%).

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 18.83% 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.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that Willow is a major vacation destination. Much of the town’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Willow’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.

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

In Willow, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 45.56 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

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

Demographics

The overall education level of Willow citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 29.78% of adults in Willow have at least a bachelor's degree, and the average American community has 21.84%.

The per capita income in Willow in 2022 was $48,621, which is upper middle income relative to Alaska, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $194,484 for a family of four. However, Willow contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Willow is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Willow home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Willow residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Willow include German, Irish, English, Polish, and Scottish.

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

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

Length of Commute

Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 21.1% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.7% of all neighborhoods in America.

Real Estate

Owner-occupied real estate dominates the neighborhood. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout research, the percentage of residential real estate occupied by its owner is higher here than in 95.1% of neighborhoods in America. Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 58.6% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.4% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.

In addition, this neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 3 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 98.7% of America.

Furthermore, some neighborhoods are made up of apartments. Some consist of row houses, and most - by far - consist of a mixture of housing types. But the neighborhood stands out due to the total dominance of detached, single-family homes here. There are nearly no other types of residential real estate in the neighborhood. In fact, this neighborhood has a higher proportion of single-family homes in its real estate stock than 97.3% of all American neighborhoods.

People

If you're looking for a great spot to raise a family, then look no further than the neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's analysis found that the combination of good quality public schools, above-average safety from crime, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family homes, help make this neighborhood among the top 10.7% of family-friendly neighborhoods across the state of Alaska. In addition, there are a high proportion of other families with school-aged children living here, making it easy for parents and their children to socialize and develop a sense of community support. In addition, families here highly value education, as is reflected by the strength of the local schools, in part due to the educational attainment of the parents here, who vote in support of the public schools.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Yugoslav and Native American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 0.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Yugoslav ancestry and 2.7% have Native American ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.5% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Native American languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.6% 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 Willow are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 62.1% of the neighborhoods in America. With 16.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 64.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.

A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.

In the neighborhood, 37.7% 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 26.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (23.2%), and 11.0% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

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 93.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian, German/Yiddish and Spanish.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.

In the neighborhood in Willow, AK, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (16.0%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (10.1%), and residents who report English roots (7.5%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (5.9%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (5.7%), 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 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (40.2% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (63.8%) 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 (16.5%) . 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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Race & Ethnic Diversity
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Crime includes:
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Schools include:
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