Onalaska is a tiny town located in the state of Washington. With a population of 657 people and two associated neighborhoods, Onalaska is the 288th largest community in Washington.Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Onalaska is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 40.20% of the Onalaska workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Onalaska is a town of sales and office workers, construction workers and builders, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Onalaska who work in sales jobs (19.93%), office and administrative support (19.60%), and business and financial occupations (17.28%). One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 11.44% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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. It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Onalaska has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Onalaska has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Onalaska than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Onalaska may be for you. Being a small town, Onalaska does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.In terms of college education, Onalaska is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 19.03% of adults 25 and older in Onalaska have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree. The per capita income in Onalaska in 2022 was $27,449, which is low income relative to Washington, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $109,796 for a family of four. However, Onalaska contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. The people who call Onalaska home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Onalaska residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Onalaska include Norwegian, Irish, English, Italian, and Scots-Irish. The most common language spoken in Onalaska is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Spanish.
