Mount Gretna is a tiny borough located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 191 people and just one neighborhood, Mount Gretna is the 1096th largest community in Pennsylvania. Mount Gretna has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic boroughs.
Mount Gretna is a decidedly white-collar borough, with fully 88.10% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Mount Gretna is a borough of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Mount Gretna who work in teaching (16.67%), business and financial occupations (13.10%), and management occupations (11.90%).
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 13.25% 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.
Another notable thing is that Mount Gretna is an extremely popular destination for tourists and seasonal residents. So much of the population is seasonal such that the borough’s population swells significantly during the vacation season, and drops again when the season ends. Because of this, much of the local economy is centered around tourism; some businesses may be operated only during the high season. During the low season, year-round residents will notice that the city is a substantially quieter place to live.
In addition, Mount Gretna is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.
Because of many things, Mount Gretna is a great place for families with children to consider. First of all, many other families with children live here, making Mount Gretna a place where both parents and children are more likely to develop social ties with other families, as well as find family-oriented services and community. The borough’s good public school district and large population of college-educated adults provide an environment conducive to academic values. With regard to real estate, Mount Gretna has a high rate of owner-occupied single family homes, which tends to reflect stability in the local community. Finally, Mount Gretna’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the country, making it one of the safest places to raise a family.
As is often the case in a small borough, Mount Gretna doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
If knowledge is power, Mount Gretna is a pretty powerful place. 64.80% of the adults in Mount Gretna have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.
The per capita income in Mount Gretna in 2022 was $63,277, which is wealthy relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $253,108 for a family of four.
The people who call Mount Gretna home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Mount Gretna residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Mount Gretna include German, English, Irish, Czech, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Mount Gretna is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and French.
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.
If you're nearing retirement age, or in retirement, the is an excellent choice for you to consider for top-quality retirement living. This neighborhood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as among the top 6.2% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in Pennsylvania, combining peace and quiet, safety from crime, and offering diverse housing options from which retirees can choose. Maybe it's because of these amenities that a large proportion of the residents here are college educated seniors, mixed with other age groups. For these and other reasons, NeighborhoodScout identifies this neighborhood as a top-notch place to consider if you are thinking of or planning to retire in Pennsylvania.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Swiss and German ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Swiss ancestry and 43.6% have German ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Mon-Khmer, which is the dominant language of Cambodia, at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.8% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Mount Gretna are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 60.6% of the neighborhoods in America. With 13.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 57.7% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 49.0% 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 23.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (13.9%), and 12.2% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 93.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.
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 Mount Gretna, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (43.6%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (11.2%), and residents who report Irish roots (6.6%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (5.1%), along with some Swiss ancestry residents (3.9%), 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 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (37.9% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (84.8%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.