Switzer is a tiny town located in the state of West Virginia. With a population of 593 people and just one neighborhood, Switzer is the 186th largest community in West Virginia.
Switzer is a blue-collar town, with 63.33% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Switzer is a town of transportation and shipping workers, sales and office workers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Switzer who work in office and administrative support (36.67%), sales jobs (0.00%), and personal care services (0.00%).
Residents will find that the town is relatively quiet. This is because it is not over-populated, and it has fewer college students, renters, and young children - all of whom can be noisy at times. So, if you're looking for a relatively peaceful place to live, Switzer is worth considering.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Switzer spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 7.50 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.
Switzer is very much a car-oriented town. This is because the population of Switzer isn't large enough or dense enough to support an extensive public transit system. It has a lot of rural roads, and the distance between houses can be quite large, which together tends to discourage walking and bicycling to work. 100.00% of residents commute to work in their own car (and the drive is typically to a job out of town). People also tend to drive out of town for other services as well, such as shopping, doctors appointments, and more.
Being a small town, Switzer does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The citizens of Switzer have a very low rate of college education: just 7.91% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, compared to a national average of 21.84% for all cities.
The per capita income in Switzer in 2022 was $19,550, which is low income relative to West Virginia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $78,200 for a family of four.
The people who call Switzer home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Switzer residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Switzer include Irish, German, Yugoslavian, Other West Indian, and West Indian.
The most common language spoken in Switzer is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and African languages.
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.
While most Americans do drive to work alone each day, the neighborhood stands out by having 92.5% of commuters doing so, which is a higher proportion of people driving alone to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.5% of all American neighborhoods.
NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research revealed that 93.7% of the adult residents in the neighborhood do not have a 4-year college degree, which is a lower rate of college graduated adults than found in 96.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Switzer are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 90.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 51.2% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 94.4% of U.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, 36.7% 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 26.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (19.3%), and 17.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 100.0% of households. Some people also speak Italian (3.5%).
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 Switzer, WV, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (13.0%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (11.6%), and residents who report English roots (5.6%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (2.5%), along with some Spanish ancestry residents (2.1%), 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 (43.8% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (92.5%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.