South Whitley is a very small town located in the state of Indiana. With a population of 1,818 people and just one neighborhood, South Whitley is the 256th largest community in Indiana. South Whitley has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic towns in the country.
When you are in South Whitley, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 53.87% of South Whitley’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, South Whitley is a town of production and manufacturing workers, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in South Whitley who work in office and administrative support (6.48%), sales jobs (6.00%), and maintenance occupations (5.53%).
Also of interest is that South Whitley has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
As is often the case in a small town, South Whitley doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The percentage of people in South Whitley with college degrees is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%: just 11.78% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in South Whitley in 2022 was $29,212, which is middle income relative to Indiana, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $116,848 for a family of four. However, South Whitley contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call South Whitley home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of South Whitley residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in South Whitley include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in South Whitley is English. Other important languages spoken here include Vietnamese and Polish.
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in South Whitley, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
It used to be that most Americans lived on the farm, or otherwise made their living from the land, the forests, or the sea. With global trade and an economy increasingly based on providing services to one another, fewer people farm, fish or harvest timber now than at any time in American history. But according to NeighborhoodScout's leading analysis, the neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 5.8% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 97.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Swiss ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.4% of this neighborhood's residents have Swiss ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 9.5% 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 99.6% 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 South Whitley are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 62.4% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 22.9% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 72.8% 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, 39.3% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 30.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.7%), and 7.0% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 89.3% of households. Some people also speak German/Yiddish (9.5%).
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 South Whitley, IN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (32.3%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (10.6%), and residents who report English roots (5.8%), and some of the residents are also of French ancestry (3.9%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (3.4%), 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 between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (39.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (82.3%) 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.