Pala is a very small town located in the state of California. With a population of 1,490 people and just one neighborhood, Pala is the 702nd largest community in California.
Housing costs in Pala are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in California.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Pala is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Pala is a town of service providers, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Pala who work in personal care services (11.59%), farm management occupations (10.14%), and maintenance occupations (9.78%).
Also of interest is that Pala has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Residents will find that the town 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, Pala is worth considering.
Pala is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
In Pala, just 7.10% of people over 25 hold a college degree, which is very low compared to the rest of the nation, whereas the average among all cities is 21.84%.
The per capita income in Pala in 2022 was $37,403, which is middle income relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $149,612 for a family of four. However, Pala contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Pala is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Pala home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Pala, accounting for 47.48% of the town’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Pala residents report their race to be Native American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Pala include German, Afghan, Italian, Irish, and English.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Pala's cultural character, accounting for 19.26% of the town’s population.
The most common language spoken in Pala is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and German/Yiddish.
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.
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 7.5% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 98.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
While most Americans do drive to work alone each day, the neighborhood stands out by having 89.6% of commuters doing so, which is a higher proportion of people driving alone to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.5% of all American 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 40 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 90.9% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
If you're planning where to retire, the neighborhood in Pala is a great option to consider. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive retirement dream area analysis, it's peaceful and quiet, has above average safety ratings compared to other neighborhoods in CA, offers a wide range of housing options, and has already attracted an enviable mix of college educated seniors. This neighborhood ranks as better for retirement living than 89.1% of the neighborhoods in California. If you are considering retiring to California, this is a good neighborhood to look at.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Native American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 23.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Native American ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 0.8% 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 96.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Pala are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 78.0% of the neighborhoods in America. With 18.0% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 66.9% 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, 42.3% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 23.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (16.0%), and 10.8% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 72.2% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (21.0%).
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 Pala, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (29.9%). There are also a number of people of Native American ancestry (23.2%), and residents who report English roots (15.9%), and some of the residents are also of Spanish ancestry (4.3%), along with some German ancestry residents (3.4%), among others. In addition, 10.6% 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 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (34.4% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (89.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.