Harbor Beach is a very small city located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 1,566 people and just one neighborhood, Harbor Beach is the 396th largest community in Michigan. Much of the housing stock in Harbor Beach was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.
Harbor Beach is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Harbor Beach is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Harbor Beach who work in office and administrative support (13.98%), management occupations (8.15%), and sales jobs (7.82%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 9.15% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
It is a fairly quiet city because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Harbor Beach has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Harbor Beach has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Harbor Beach than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Harbor Beach may be for you.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Harbor Beach spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 16.82 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
Harbor Beach is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The education level of Harbor Beach citizens, measured as those with bachelor's degrees or advanced degrees, is similar to the national average for all American cities and towns. 19.40% of adults 25 and older in Harbor Beach have a college degree.
The per capita income in Harbor Beach in 2022 was $26,853, which is lower middle income relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $107,412 for a family of four. However, Harbor Beach contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Harbor Beach home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Harbor Beach residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Harbor Beach include German, English, Polish, Irish, and Italian.
The most common language spoken in Harbor Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include Arabic 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.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Polish and German ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 16.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Polish ancestry and 41.7% have German ancestry.
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 Harbor Beach are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 85.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 16.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 64.7% 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, 34.3% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 28.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (19.3%), and 15.2% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.7% of households.
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 neighborhood in Harbor Beach, MI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (41.7%). There are also a number of people of Polish ancestry (16.1%), and residents who report English roots (10.7%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (8.3%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (5.2%), among others.
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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (52.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (74.5%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (8.8%) and 6.1% 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.