Okolona is a very small city located in the state of Mississippi. With a population of 2,416 people and just one neighborhood, Okolona is the 107th largest community in Mississippi.
Okolona is a blue-collar town, with 37.32% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Okolona is a city of service providers, production and manufacturing workers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Okolona who work in healthcare suport services (11.87%), food service (11.05%), and sales jobs (9.84%).
As is often the case in a small city, Okolona doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The population of Okolona has a very low overall level of education: only 8.07% of people over 25 hold a 4-year college degree or higher.
The per capita income in Okolona in 2022 was $21,027, which is lower middle income relative to Mississippi, and low income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $84,108 for a family of four. Okolona also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 36.25% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Okolona is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Okolona home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Okolona residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Okolona include Irish, English, African, Italian, and Scots-Irish.
The most common language spoken in Okolona is English. Other important languages spoken here include German/Yiddish and Greek.
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.
NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research identifies the neighborhood as having one of the highest concentrations of people employed in manufacturing or as laborers of any neighborhood in America. In fact, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs nationally, this neighborhood has 47.3% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 98.2% of American neighborhoods.
While most Americans do drive to work alone each day, the neighborhood stands out by having 90.7% of commuters doing so, which is a higher proportion of people driving alone to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.8% of all American neighborhoods.
The neighborhood is unique for having just 6.4% of adults here having earned a bachelor's degree. This is a lower rate of college graduates than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.2% of America's neighborhoods.
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 Okolona are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 94.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 52.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 95.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 47.3% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations, with 20.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.5%), and 15.0% in executive, management, and professional occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 100.0% of households.
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 Okolona, MS, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (1.4%).
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 (39.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (90.7%) 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.