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Wadena, MN

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



Overview

Wadena is a very small city located in the state of Minnesota. With a population of 4,373 people and just one neighborhood, Wadena is the 175th largest community in Minnesota. There's nothing like the smell of a brand new house, and in Wadena, you'll find that a large proportion of houses were recently built. New growth in residential real estate is an indication that people are choosing to move to Wadena, and putting down their money on brand new construction. Wadena’s real estate is, on average, some of the newest in the nation. Wadena does seem to be experiencing an influx of affluent people, because the median household income is $97,031.00.

Occupations and Workforce

Wadena is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 93.00% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Wadena is a city of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Wadena who work in sales jobs (21.00%), business and financial occupations (18.00%), and healthcare (13.00%).

Setting & Lifestyle

One of the benefits of Wadena is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 11.70 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.

Wadena is a small city, and as is often the case with smaller towns, the population isn't large or dense enough to support much in the way of a public transportation system. In fact, there are many rural roads around Wadena, which makes walking or biking to and from work a bit difficult. This makes for a very car-oriented town: 100.00% of residents commute to work by private automobile, and people often drive out of town for work, shopping, and other activities.

As is often the case in a small city, Wadena doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.

Demographics

The percentage of people in Wadena who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 21.84%: 27.45% of adults in Wadena have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Wadena in 2022 was $41,214, which is upper middle income relative to Minnesota and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $164,856 for a family of four. However, Wadena contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

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

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.

Modes of Transportation

If your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 4.4% of residents in the neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 97.8% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.

Occupations

The neighborhood stands out nationally for having a greater proportion of its residents active in the military than 97.4% of other U.S. neighborhoods. If you come here, you will notice military people active in their jobs, going to and from work, and in plain clothes out and about the neighborhood.

Furthermore, neighborhoodScout's exclusive research identifies the neighborhood as having one of the highest concentrations of people employed in manufacturing or as laborers of any neighborhood in America. In fact, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs nationally, this neighborhood has 41.2% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 95.1% of American neighborhoods.

Length of Commute

Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 63.8% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Finnish and Norwegian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 10.9% have Norwegian ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Greek at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.2% of the neighborhoods in America.

The Neighbors

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 Wadena are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 74.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 21.5% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 72.1% 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, 41.2% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 25.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.4%), and 15.4% 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 neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.

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 Wadena, MN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (36.1%). There are also a number of people of Norwegian ancestry (10.9%), and residents who report Irish roots (7.3%), and some of the residents are also of Finnish ancestry (7.0%), along with some English ancestry residents (4.7%), 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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (63.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (81.3%) 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 (5.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.

Real Estate includes:
Average Home Values
Rental Market
Housing Market Details
Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
Lifestyle & Special Character
Household Types
Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
Income & Unemployment Rate
Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
Neighborhood Crime Index
Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
Violent Crime Comparison
Schools include:
School Ratings
Schools In District
Public School Test Scores
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Educational Expenditures

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