Chicago, IL (West Ridge South)

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 West Ridge South neighborhood in Chicago are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 50.0% of the neighborhoods in America. With 18.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 66.1% 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 West Ridge South neighborhood, 36.2% 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 executive, management, and professional occupations, with 28.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (25.2%), and 10.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

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 West Ridge South neighborhood is English, spoken by 34.6% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, French and Vietnamese.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

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 West Ridge South neighborhood in Chicago, IL, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (16.9%). There are also a number of people of Asian ancestry (14.6%), and residents who report Sub-Saharan African roots (8.8%), and some of the residents are also of Puerto Rican ancestry (6.1%), along with some German ancestry residents (5.5%), among others. In addition, 42.1% 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 West Ridge South neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (34.0% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (61.4%) 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 (11.0%) and 8.5% of residents also ride the bus 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.