Irons is a very small town located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 2,365 people and just one neighborhood, Irons is the 332nd largest community in Michigan.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Irons is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Irons is a town of service providers, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Irons who work in sales jobs (14.88%), maintenance occupations (9.70%), and management occupations (8.41%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 11.35% 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.
Another notable thing is that Irons is a major vacation destination. Much of the town’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Irons’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
It is a fairly quiet town 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!) Irons 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. Irons has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Irons than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Irons may be for you.
In Irons, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 34.28 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
Being a small town, Irons does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
In terms of college education, the citizens of Irons rank slightly lower than the national average. 15.28% of adults 25 and older in Irons 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 Irons in 2022 was $33,255, which is middle income relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $133,020 for a family of four. However, Irons contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Irons home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Irons residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Irons include German, English, Irish, Dutch, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Irons is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish 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.
Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 71.6% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.8% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
In addition, uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 14 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 96.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods. One of the notable things about is that it is one of the quietest neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and quantitative rating of quietness. When you are here, you will find it to be very quiet. If quiet and peaceful are your cup of tea, you may have found a great place for you.
There are more people living in the neighborhood employed as sales and service workers (60.9%) than almost any neighborhood in the country. From fast-food service workers to major sales accounts, sales and service workers make up the largest proportion of our national employment picture. But despite that size and importance nationally, this neighborhood still stands out as unique due to the dominance of people living here who work in such occupations.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Dutch and Lithuanian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Dutch ancestry and 2.2% have Lithuanian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 7.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 96.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 neighborhood in Irons are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 80.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 9.6% 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 50.4% 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, 39.1% 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 25.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (23.5%), and 10.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.8% of households. Some people also speak Polish (7.6%).
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the neighborhood in Irons, MI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (18.4%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (11.1%), and residents who report Irish roots (9.8%), and some of the residents are also of Dutch ancestry (7.5%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (5.4%), 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 between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (29.2% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (76.1%) 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 (9.5%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.