Balsam Lake is a tiny village located in the state of Wisconsin. With a population of 922 people and just one neighborhood, Balsam Lake is the 391st largest community in Wisconsin.
When you are in Balsam Lake, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 36.47% of Balsam Lake’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, Balsam Lake is a village of sales and office workers, managers, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Balsam Lake who work in office and administrative support (16.41%), management occupations (9.73%), and sales jobs (9.12%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.02% 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.
The village is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Balsam Lake has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Balsam Lake a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
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.
In terms of college education, Balsam Lake is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 18.54% of adults 25 and older in Balsam Lake have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Balsam Lake in 2022 was $32,005, which is lower middle income relative to Wisconsin, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $128,020 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, Norwegian, Swedish, English, and Irish.
The most common language spoken in Balsam Lake is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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.
Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 43.2% 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 Norwegian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 17.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Swedish ancestry and 13.2% have Norwegian 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 46.6% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 8.6% 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 54.2% of America's neighborhoods.
A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.
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 33.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (14.2%), and 13.5% 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 97.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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 Balsam Lake, WI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (38.3%). There are also a number of people of Swedish ancestry (17.5%), and residents who report Norwegian roots (13.2%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (11.0%), along with some English ancestry residents (6.8%), 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 (31.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (73.1%) 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 (6.8%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.