Desert Center is a tiny town located in the state of California. With a population of 256 people and just one neighborhood, Desert Center is the 826th largest community in California.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Desert Center is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 56.86% of the Desert Center workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Desert Center is a town of construction workers and builders, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Desert Center who work in office and administrative support (15.69%), healthcare suport services (11.76%), and maintenance occupations (5.88%).
A relatively large number of people in Desert Center telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 7.84% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.
Another notable thing is that Desert Center 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, Desert Center’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
Desert Center’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the nation, making it a very safe 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!) Desert Center 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. Desert Center has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Desert Center than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Desert Center may be for you.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Desert Center spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 13.56 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.
Being a small town, Desert Center does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The percentage of adults in Desert Center who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 18.85% of the adults in Desert Center have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Desert Center in 2022 was $26,408, which is low income relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $105,632 for a family of four. However, Desert Center contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Desert Center also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 31.94% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Desert Center is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Desert Center home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Desert Center residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Desert Center also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 38.89% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Desert Center include Irish, German, English, French, and Italian.
The most common language spoken in Desert Center is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
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.
From major sales accounts to fast-food workers, sales and service employees are often the backbone of the local economy. In the neighborhood, they truly stand out. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis identifies this neighborhood as having a higher percentage of sales and service workers than 99.7% of all American neighborhoods.
Furthermore, 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 4.6% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 96.7% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 0 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 99.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, the real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 98.7% of all neighborhoods in America, with 45.7% of the occupied housing here being classified as mobile homes. So if you are looking for a mobile home, or you like the look and feel of mobile home parks, this neighborhood might have the setting you desire.
Furthermore, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 40.4% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 97.9% 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.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Mexican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 57.4% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 5.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 95.8% of the neighborhoods in America.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Desert Center are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 81.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 3.9% 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 67.5% of America'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, 53.0% 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 20.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (12.7%), and 10.8% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.
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 47.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
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 Desert Center, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (57.4%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (10.0%), and residents who report Irish roots (6.2%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (3.3%), along with some Ukrainian ancestry residents (1.6%), among others. In addition, 18.2% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (39.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (74.4%) 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 (10.5%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.