Wakonda is a tiny town located in the state of South Dakota. With a population of 343 people and just one neighborhood, Wakonda is the 124th largest community in South Dakota. Much of the housing stock in Wakonda was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.
When you are in Wakonda, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 40.31% of Wakonda’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, Wakonda is a town of service providers, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Wakonda who work in office and administrative support (12.40%), management occupations (11.63%), and maintenance occupations (9.30%).
A relatively large number of people in Wakonda telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 9.45% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.
Being a small town, Wakonda does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The percentage of adults in Wakonda who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 20.54% of the adults in Wakonda have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Wakonda in 2022 was $29,359, which is lower middle income relative to South Dakota and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $117,436 for a family of four. However, Wakonda contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Wakonda home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Wakonda residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Wakonda include German, English, Norwegian, Irish, and French.
The most common language spoken in Wakonda is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Greek.
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.
Uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 7 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 97.7% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Most American households own a car or other vehicle. Many own two cars or perhaps three. In the United States, it is useful to have an automobile not only for commuting, but also for shopping and getting to other services one needs. But NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed that households in the neighborhood have a highly unusual car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 38.2% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 97.5% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Danish and Norwegian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 6.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Danish ancestry and 14.3% have Norwegian ancestry.
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 Wakonda are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 58.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 6.9% 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 57.7% of America'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, 47.6% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 22.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (15.6%), and 12.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.4% of households.
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 Wakonda, SD, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (33.2%). There are also a number of people of Norwegian ancestry (14.3%), and residents who report Irish roots (7.2%), and some of the residents are also of Swedish ancestry (6.5%), along with some English ancestry residents (6.4%), among others.
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 (36.4% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (81.4%) 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 (8.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.