Chicago, IL (Washington Heights Northwest)

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 Washington Heights Northwest neighborhood in Chicago are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 93.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 44.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 91.8% 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 Washington Heights Northwest neighborhood, 35.0% 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 25.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (20.6%), and 19.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the Washington Heights Northwest neighborhood is English, spoken by 85.7% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (13.4%).

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 Washington Heights Northwest neighborhood in Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Sub-Saharan African (23.8%). There are also a number of people of African ancestry (15.3%), and residents who report South American roots (10.4%), and some of the residents are also of Jamaican ancestry (3.0%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (1.3%), among others. In addition, 12.4% 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 Washington Heights Northwest neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (38.8% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.

Here most residents (55.4%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (21.5%) and 7.5% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.