Velma is a tiny town located in the state of Oklahoma. With a population of 574 people and just one neighborhood, Velma is the 282nd largest community in Oklahoma.
Velma is a blue-collar town, with 46.15% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Velma is a town of transportation and shipping workers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Velma who work in office and administrative support (18.32%), law enforcement and fire fighting (5.13%), and healthcare (5.13%).
The town 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, Velma has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Velma a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
As is often the case in a small town, Velma doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The population of Velma has a very low overall level of education: only 8.10% of people over 25 hold a 4-year college degree or higher.
The per capita income in Velma in 2022 was $33,113, which is wealthy relative to Oklahoma, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $132,452 for a family of four. However, Velma contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Velma is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Velma home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Velma residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Velma include German, Irish, English, Scottish, and French.
The most common language spoken in Velma 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.
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 10 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 97.0% of America.
Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Long commutes can be brutal. They take time, money, and energy, leaving less of you for yourself and your family. The residents of the neighborhood unfortunately have the distinction of having, on average, a longer commute than most any neighborhood in America. 11.4% of commuters here travel more than one hour just one-way to work. That is more than two hours per day. This percentage with two-hour + round-trip commutes is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.0% of all neighborhoods in America.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Native American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.4% of this neighborhood's residents have Native American 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 Velma are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 73.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 13.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 58.1% 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, 38.8% 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 33.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (14.0%), and 12.8% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.9% 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 Velma, OK, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (10.0%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (9.8%), and residents who report German roots (8.7%), and some of the residents are also of Native American ancestry (5.4%), along with some Mexican ancestry residents (3.3%), 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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (31.7% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America. However, there is also a significant group of residents (11.4%) who commute over an hour in each direction.
Here most residents (84.5%) 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 (6.8%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.