Norfolk, VA (Oakwood)

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 Oakwood neighborhood in Norfolk are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 81.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 37.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 87.7% 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 Oakwood neighborhood, 36.8% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 28.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.6%), and 16.7% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

Languages

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 Oakwood neighborhood is English, spoken by 90.8% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog (the first language of the Philippine region).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

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 Oakwood neighborhood in Norfolk, VA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Jamaican (11.5%). There are also a number of people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (5.0%), and residents who report Asian roots (4.8%), and some of the residents are also of African ancestry (2.7%), along with some Puerto Rican ancestry residents (2.2%), 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 Oakwood neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.6% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (70.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (11.1%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.