Ritzville is a very small city located in the state of Washington. With a population of 1,729 people and just one neighborhood, Ritzville is the 230th largest community in Washington. Much of the housing stock in Ritzville was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.
Unlike some cities, Ritzville isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Ritzville are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Ritzville is a city of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Ritzville who work in teaching (12.48%), sales jobs (11.75%), and management occupations (9.69%).
Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 18.96 minutes getting to work every day.
As is often the case in a small city, Ritzville doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The citizens of Ritzville are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 21.54% of adults in Ritzville having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Ritzville in 2022 was $31,732, which is lower middle income relative to Washington, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $126,928 for a family of four. However, Ritzville contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Ritzville is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Ritzville home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ritzville residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Ritzville include German, English, Irish, Norwegian, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Ritzville is English. Other important languages spoken here include Vietnamese and Spanish.
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.
Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.
In addition, there is an especially high percentage of incarcerated people (1.1%) living in the neighborhood.
Unpopulated, and rural, the neighborhood is one of the least crowded neighborhoods in all of America. If you like open space, no traffic, and lots of room, this neighborhood may be just what you are looking for. According to NeighborhoodScout's leading research, this neighborhood is less densely populated than 98.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
Each year, fewer and fewer Americans make their living as farmers, foresters, or fishers. But the neighborhood truly stands out among U.S. neighborhoods. According to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, this neighborhood has a greater proportion of farmers, foresters, or fishers than 97.5% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Canadian and Norwegian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Canadian ancestry and 5.5% have Norwegian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.5% 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 98.4% 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 Ritzville are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 41.4% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% 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 100.0% 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, 40.3% 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 25.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (15.3%), and 13.5% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 93.3% of households. Some people also speak German/Yiddish (3.5%).
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 Ritzville, WA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (26.3%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (19.6%), and residents who report Irish roots (9.7%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (7.6%), along with some Norwegian ancestry residents (5.5%), 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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (70.6%) 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 (14.5%) and 7.1% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.