Balsam Lake is a tiny village located in the state of Wisconsin. With a population of 954 people and just one neighborhood, Balsam Lake is the 391st largest community in Wisconsin.
Unlike some villages where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Balsam Lake is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Balsam Lake is a village of sales and office workers, managers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Balsam Lake who work in office and administrative support (14.60%), management occupations (13.50%), and sales jobs (12.41%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 10.58% 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.
Another notable thing is that Balsam Lake is a major vacation destination. Much of the village’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Balsam Lake’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
It is a fairly quiet village 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!) Balsam Lake 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. Balsam Lake has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Balsam Lake than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Balsam Lake may be for you.
Balsam Lake is a small village, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The percentage of adults in Balsam Lake who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 17.75% of the adults in Balsam Lake have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Balsam Lake in 2022 was $38,537, which is middle income relative to Wisconsin, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $154,148 for a family of four. However, Balsam Lake contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Balsam Lake home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Balsam Lake residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Balsam Lake include German, Swedish, English, Norwegian, and Irish.
The most common language spoken in Balsam Lake is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish 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.
Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 41.1% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 98.0% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
Of particular note, 2.6% of the people in the neighborhood currently reside in a correction facility, held due to punishment for a crime.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Swedish and Danish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 18.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Swedish ancestry and 4.2% have Danish 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 Balsam Lake are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 45.0% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 7.0% 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 57.5% of America'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, 37.0% 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 32.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (16.2%), and 13.2% 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 97.0% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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 Balsam Lake, WI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (37.0%). There are also a number of people of Swedish ancestry (18.2%), and residents who report Irish roots (10.9%), and some of the residents are also of Norwegian ancestry (10.1%), along with some English ancestry residents (7.7%), 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 (37.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (71.6%) 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 (6.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.