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Cotton, MN

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Cotton is a very small town located in the state of Minnesota. With a population of 1,659 people and just one neighborhood, Cotton is the 353rd largest community in Minnesota.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Cotton is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Cotton is a town of managers, construction workers and builders, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Cotton who work in management occupations (20.21%), sales jobs (9.97%), and office and administrative support (9.44%).

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 9.49% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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.

Setting & Lifestyle

Another notable thing is that Cotton is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the town experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller town.

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!) Cotton 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. Cotton has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Cotton than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Cotton may be for you.

One downside of living in Cotton, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 32.23 minutes every day commuting to work.

Demographics

The percentage of people in Cotton who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 21.84%: 27.88% of adults in Cotton have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Cotton in 2022 was $47,909, which is wealthy relative to Minnesota, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $191,636 for a family of four. However, Cotton contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Cotton home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Cotton residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Cotton include German, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, and Irish.

The most common language spoken in Cotton is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Cotton, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

Real Estate

Owner-occupied real estate dominates the neighborhood. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout research, the percentage of residential real estate occupied by its owner is higher here than in 98.1% of neighborhoods in America. Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 55.3% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 99.2% 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, this neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 3 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 98.7% of America. 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.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Finnish and Swedish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 12.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 11.2% have Swedish ancestry.

The Neighbors

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 Cotton are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 69.4% of the neighborhoods in America. With 42.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 91.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.

A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.

In the neighborhood, 39.2% 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 32.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.2%), and 11.0% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.0% of households.

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 neighborhood in Cotton, MN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (23.3%). There are also a number of people of Norwegian ancestry (13.9%), and residents who report Finnish roots (12.5%), and some of the residents are also of Swedish ancestry (11.2%), along with some Irish ancestry residents (10.8%), among others.

Getting to Work

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 (26.8% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (82.5%) 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 (6.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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Economics & Demographics include:
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Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
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Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
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Schools include:
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