Laurel is a tiny town located in the state of Indiana. With a population of 412 people and just one neighborhood, Laurel is the 424th largest community in Indiana. Much of the housing stock in Laurel was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.
Laurel is a blue-collar town, with 45.19% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Laurel is a town of sales and office workers, transportation and shipping workers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Laurel who work in sales jobs (23.08%), office and administrative support (8.17%), and law enforcement and fire fighting (3.85%).
In terms of college education, Laurel ranks among the least educated cities in the nation, as only 2.41% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Laurel in 2022 was $16,461, which is low income relative to Indiana and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $65,844 for a family of four. Laurel also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 31.63% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Laurel is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Laurel home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Laurel residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Laurel include German, Irish, English, Scots-Irish, and French.
The most common language spoken in Laurel is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and African languages.
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.
NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research identifies the neighborhood as having one of the highest concentrations of people employed in manufacturing or as laborers of any neighborhood in America. In fact, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs nationally, this neighborhood has 44.2% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 96.7% of American 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 35.0% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 96.1% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Significantly, 2.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak German/Yiddish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 96.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Laurel are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 75.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 20.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 68.9% of U.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, 44.2% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer 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 26.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (20.9%), and 8.7% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.5% of households. Some people also speak German/Yiddish (2.1%).
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 Laurel, IN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (18.9%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (9.9%), and residents who report Irish roots (8.6%), and some of the residents are also of Scottish ancestry (4.5%), along with some Mexican ancestry residents (1.8%), 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 (35.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (86.4%) 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 (10.2%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.