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Laurens, IA

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



Overview

Laurens is a very small city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 1,253 people and just one neighborhood, Laurens is the 326th largest community in Iowa.

Occupations and Workforce

Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Laurens is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 39.01% of the Laurens workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Laurens is a city of sales and office workers, production and manufacturing workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Laurens who work in office and administrative support (13.88%), food service (10.58%), and management occupations (8.10%).

Setting & Lifestyle

The overall crime rate in Laurens is one of the lowest in the US. This makes it one of the safer places to live in the country in terms of crime.

Residents will find that the city 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, Laurens is worth considering.

As is often the case in a small city, Laurens doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.

Demographics

In terms of college education, the citizens of Laurens rank slightly lower than the national average. 13.90% of adults 25 and older in Laurens have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, while 21.84% of adults have a 4-year degree or higher in the average American community.

The per capita income in Laurens in 2022 was $31,429, which is low income relative to Iowa, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $125,716 for a family of four. However, Laurens contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Laurens is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Laurens home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Laurens residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Laurens include German, Irish, English, Norwegian, and Swedish.

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

Real Estate

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 15 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 95.9% of America.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Norwegian and German ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Norwegian ancestry and 32.9% have German ancestry.

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 Laurens are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 71.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 16.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 64.0% 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, 35.1% 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 27.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (20.4%), and 13.5% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.0% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (3.3%).

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 Laurens, IA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (32.9%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (13.7%), and residents who report English roots (9.2%), and some of the residents are also of Norwegian ancestry (5.9%), along with some Mexican ancestry residents (3.7%), 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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (38.6% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (79.9%) 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 (11.0%) . 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:
Average Home Values
Rental Market
Housing Market Details
Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
Lifestyle & Special Character
Household Types
Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
Income & Unemployment Rate
Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
Neighborhood Crime Index
Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
Violent Crime Comparison
Schools include:
School Ratings
Schools In District
Public School Test Scores
School District Enrollment
Educational Expenditures

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