Western is a tiny village located in the state of Nebraska. With a population of 224 people and just one neighborhood, Western is the 201st largest community in Nebraska. Much of the housing stock in Western was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic villages in the country.
Unlike some villages, Western isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Western are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Western is a village of sales and office workers, managers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Western who work in sales jobs (21.43%), business and financial occupations (10.32%), and personal care services (7.94%).
Because of many things, Western is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Western really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Western perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
The village is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Western has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Western a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
In Western, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.70 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
Being a small village, Western does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The overall education level of Western is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 21.84%: 28.40% of adults 25 and older in the village have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Western in 2022 was $36,660, which is middle income relative to Nebraska and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $146,640 for a family of four. However, Western contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Western is a somewhat ethnically-diverse village. The people who call Western home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Western residents report their race to be White, followed by Native Hawaiian. Important ancestries of people in Western include German, Irish, Czech, English, and Danish.
The most common language spoken in Western is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
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.
Uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 4 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 98.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
One of the really interesting characteristics about the neighborhood is that, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research, it is an excellent choice in which to reside for college students. Due to its popularity among college students who already choose to live here, its walkability, and its above average safety from crime, the neighborhood is ideal for prospective or already-enrolled college students. Between semesters and during school breaks, you'll notice that the excitement here fluctuates with the college seasons. Despite the excitement however, parents of college-age children can rest easy knowing that this neighborhood has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 3.4% of college-friendly places to live in the state of Nebraska.
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 34.4% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 95.7% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Czechoslovakian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Czechoslovakian ancestry.
The freedom of moving to new places versus the comfort of home. How much and how often people move not only can create diverse and worldly neighborhoods, but simultaneously it can produce a loss of intimacy with one's surroundings and a lack of connectedness to one's neighbors. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research has identified this neighborhood as unique with regard to the transience of its populace. More residents of the neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 96.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.
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 Western are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 54.9% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 2.4% 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 73.2% 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, 51.2% 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 16.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (15.8%), and 13.7% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 94.9% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (3.3%).
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Western, NE, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (30.6%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (9.0%), and residents who report Irish roots (5.8%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (3.2%), along with some French ancestry residents (2.4%), among others.
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 neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (34.5% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (83.4%) 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 (8.0%) and 5.1% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work 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.