Westport is a very small coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Washington. With a population of 2,286 people and just one neighborhood, Westport is the 209th largest community in Washington.
When you are in Westport, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 37.51% of Westport’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, Westport is a city of transportation and shipping workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Westport who work in management occupations (10.92%), teaching (9.40%), and healthcare (8.80%).
Another notable thing is that Westport is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the city experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller city.
It is a fairly quiet city 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!) Westport 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. Westport has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Westport than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Westport may be for you.
Westport is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Westport spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 12.66 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
For a small city, Westport has a lot of people who use public transit to get to work, and those that do mostly ride the bus. This suggests that a real need for low-cost transportation in Westport exists, and local transit is helping to meet that need.
The education level of Westport citizens, measured as those with bachelor's degrees or advanced degrees, is similar to the national average for all American cities and towns. 18.79% of adults 25 and older in Westport have a college degree.
The per capita income in Westport in 2022 was $35,470, 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 $141,880 for a family of four. However, Westport contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Westport is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Westport home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Westport residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Westport also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 13.26% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Westport include Irish, German, English, Norwegian, and Swedish.
The most common language spoken in Westport is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish 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.
is a neighborhood that is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Many times, such places have amenities that bring locals and visitors to the waterfront for recreational activities or to check out the scenery. In some densely populated areas that are less financially well-off, the neighborhood waterfront can be relatively industrial and less open to recreation. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 41.3% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 97.9% 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.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 76.6% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
More people ride the bus in this neighborhood each day to get to work than 98.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Norwegian and Hungarian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 11.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Norwegian ancestry and 2.7% have Hungarian ancestry.
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 Westport are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 64.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 42.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 90.8% 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, 40.7% 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 34.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (16.1%), and 6.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 85.1% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (10.5%).
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 Westport, WA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (17.2%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (15.7%), and residents who report Norwegian roots (11.8%), and some of the residents are also of Mexican ancestry (7.9%), along with some English ancestry residents (6.9%), 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 neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (76.6% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (52.8%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (17.0%) and 14.2% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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.