Waterloo is a very small town located in the state of Indiana. With a population of 2,136 people and just one neighborhood, Waterloo is the 234th largest community in Indiana.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Waterloo is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 47.82% of the Waterloo workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Waterloo is a town of production and manufacturing workers, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Waterloo who work in office and administrative support (11.17%), sales jobs (8.90%), and management occupations (6.54%).
Waterloo is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
In Waterloo, just 11.88% of people have at least a bachelor's degree, which is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%.
The per capita income in Waterloo in 2022 was $26,884, which is lower middle income relative to Indiana and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $107,536 for a family of four. However, Waterloo contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Waterloo home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Waterloo residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Waterloo include German, English, Irish, Polish, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Waterloo is English. Other important languages spoken here include Arabic and Spanish.
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.
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 5.9% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 97.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Our research reveals that 90.7% of commuters who live in the neighborhood get to work each day by driving alone in their automobiles, which is a higher proportion than 97.1% of U.S. neighborhoods.
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 Waterloo are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 55.4% of the neighborhoods in America. With 14.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 59.7% 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, 39.1% 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 20.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (18.4%), and 15.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.7% of households. Some people also speak Italian (2.6%).
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 Waterloo, IN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (22.8%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (10.1%), and residents who report Irish roots (9.2%), and some of the residents are also of Scottish ancestry (3.7%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (3.7%), 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 (37.7% 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 addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (6.0%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.