This is a small community in a single neighborhood.
As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.
What do we mean by a neighborhood?
NeighborhoodScout® uses the official government designation for neighborhoods - the census tract.
Census tracts are small, relatively permanent subdivisions of a county that are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in conjunction with local authorities all across the country to define real neighborhoods that are bounded to contain areas with homogeneous population characteristics (including economic status, lifestyle, and living conditions). Census tracts usually have 4,000 persons, but can range between 1,500 and 8,000 persons. This is the most fine-grained area for which detailed information is made available from the government, to protect the individual privacy of each of us. Because census tracts are based on population, they vary in size depending on the density of settlement. In urban areas, they are small, and in rural areas they can cover an entire small town or even a few small towns in very rural areas.
Since census tracts are subdivisions of a county, we did a spatial overlay of the census tracts onto city and town boundaries using a geographic information system to properly assign each census tract to its appropriate city or town. Then we named each census tract to the local colloquially recognized neighborhood name for that spot (e.g., Boston, MA (Dorchester). If there was not a name available, we named the census tract by the largest street intersection in the census tract (e.g., Worcester, MA (Lincoln St/Plantation St)
Why we don't use Zip Codes as neighborhoods
Zip codes were developed by the Postal Service for the purpose of delivering mail, but were never intended to define coherent neighborhoods. In addition, Zip Codes can have as many as 10 distinctly different census tracts contained within them. When distinct census tracts are blended together in a single Zip Code, the data reflects their average conditions and often gives a false sense of the area. The result is that potentially great matching neighborhoods can be missed, and erroneous matches can also be produced and delivered to you.
Using census tracts makes great matches possible, and helps people find the areas that are best for them and their families. Because we are committed to providing the highest possible quality and finding the neighborhoods that best meet your criteria, we use census tracts. And, as always, we show you the actual street map of the neighborhood so you know exactly where your best matching neighborhood is located.
What is a Condition Alert?
A condition alert is a condition in the neighborhood that triggers an alert. NeighborhoodScout contains condition alerts to highlight conditions that are extreme, whether good or bad. This helps answer crucial questions about the state of the neighborhood being evaluated, such as:
What are the risks of violent crime here?
Is the risk of home break-ins or other property crimes increasing?
Does real estate here hold its value?
Are the trends in local vacancies or unemployment concerning?
...and dozens more.
Information at a glance that you need to know to invest, appraise or finance a property.
Sturgeon Lake - Willow River is a very small town located in the state of Minnesota. With a population of 2,971 people and just one neighborhood, Sturgeon Lake - Willow River is the 244th largest community in Minnesota.
Occupations and Workforce
Unlike some towns, Sturgeon Lake - Willow River isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Sturgeon Lake - Willow River are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Sturgeon Lake - Willow River is a town of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Sturgeon Lake - Willow River who work in healthcare (10.12%), office and administrative support (9.76%), and law enforcement and fire fighting (9.24%).
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 10.90% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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.
Setting & Lifestyle
As is often the case in a small town, Sturgeon Lake - Willow River doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
Demographics
The citizens of Sturgeon Lake - Willow River are slightly less educated than the national average of 21.84% for the average city or town: 13.12% of adults in Sturgeon Lake - Willow River have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree
The per capita income in Sturgeon Lake - Willow River in 2022 was $33,302, which is lower middle income relative to Minnesota, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $133,208 for a family of four. However, Sturgeon Lake - Willow River contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Sturgeon Lake - Willow River home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Sturgeon Lake - Willow River residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Sturgeon Lake - Willow River include German, Polish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Irish.
The most common language spoken in Sturgeon Lake - Willow River is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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 Sturgeon Lake - Willow River, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
People
Of particular note, 6.0% of the people in the neighborhood currently reside in a correction facility, held due to punishment for a crime.
Real Estate
Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 33.7% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 96.0% 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.
In addition, uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 20 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 94.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Occupations
The government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed, is that the neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 13.4% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 95.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Finnish and Swedish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 10.5% have Swedish ancestry.
The Neighbors
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 Sturgeon Lake - Willow River are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 50.7% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 5.4% 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 63.5% 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, 31.7% 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 27.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (23.2%), and 14.8% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.0% of households.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
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 Sturgeon Lake - Willow River, MN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (27.8%). There are also a number of people of Polish ancestry (14.7%), and residents who report Norwegian roots (12.1%), and some of the residents are also of Swedish ancestry (10.5%), along with some Irish ancestry residents (9.3%), among others.
Getting to Work
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 (31.6% 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 (17.7%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
SCOUT’s patented match algorithm identifies the most similar neighborhoods to a subject location, and quantifies the similarity to the subject location. This allows analysts to identify the most similar neighborhoods in a local market area for appraisals, investments, and research.
The algorithm uses 273 neighborhood conditions, identifies the dominant dimensions underlying the conditions and calculates the similarity. This captures the true culture and character of locations, economic conditions, and trends.
The closer to 100% means the locations are nearly identical. 80% is a very good, but not excellent match, and so forth.
