Arcola is a very small city located in the state of Illinois. With a population of 2,915 people and just one neighborhood, Arcola is the 487th largest community in Illinois.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Arcola is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 41.96% of the Arcola workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Arcola is a city of professionals, production and manufacturing workers, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Arcola who work in office and administrative support (11.24%), healthcare (8.68%), and management occupations (7.25%).
Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 16.43 minutes getting to work every day.
As is often the case in a small city, Arcola doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
In terms of college education, Arcola is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 20.86% of adults 25 and older in Arcola have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Arcola in 2022 was $32,486, which is lower middle income relative to Illinois, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $129,944 for a family of four. However, Arcola contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Arcola is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Arcola home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Arcola residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Arcola also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 44.26% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Arcola include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Scottish.
Arcola also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 16.94%.
The most common language spoken in Arcola is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and German/Yiddish.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 60.9% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
Significantly, 5.2% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak German/Yiddish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.1% 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 Arcola are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 61.5% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 9.4% 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 51.0% of America'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, 39.8% 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 31.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (16.4%), and 10.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 61.4% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and German/Yiddish.
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 Arcola, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (35.1%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (19.0%), and residents who report English roots (9.7%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (3.1%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (2.4%), among others. In addition, 13.9% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 (60.9% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (75.9%) 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 (15.8%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.