Wadena is a very small city located in the state of Minnesota. With a population of 4,352 people and just one neighborhood, Wadena is the 175th largest community in Minnesota. There's nothing like the smell of a brand new house, and in Wadena, you'll find that a large proportion of houses were recently built. New growth in residential real estate is an indication that people are choosing to move to Wadena, and putting down their money on brand new construction. Wadena’s real estate is, on average, some of the newest in the nation. Wadena does seem to be experiencing an influx of affluent people, because the median household income is $70,000.00.
Wadena is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 92.31% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Wadena is a city of service providers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Wadena who work in sales jobs (25.64%), healthcare suport services (14.10%), and business and financial occupations (12.82%).
Of important note, Wadena is also a city of artists. Wadena has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Wadena’s character.
The city is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Wadena has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Wadena a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
Wadena is a very car-oriented city. 100.00% of residents commute to work in a private automobile rather than by other means, such as public transit, bicycling, or walking. This is because Wadena is a small city , and most people who live here have to drive out of town for work, and the town population is not large nor dense enough to support an extensive public transportation system. Wadena has a lot of rural roads, and houses can be far apart. Many residents drive out of town for regular shopping trips as well.
Wadena is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
In terms of college education, Wadena is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 19.61% of adults 25 and older in Wadena have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Wadena in 2022 was $48,669, which is wealthy relative to Minnesota and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $194,676 for a family of four. However, Wadena contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Wadena home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Wadena residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Wadena include German, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Irish.
The most common language spoken in Wadena is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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.
Each year, fewer and fewer Americans make their living as farmers, foresters, or fishers. But the neighborhood truly stands out among U.S. neighborhoods. According to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, this neighborhood has a greater proportion of farmers, foresters, or fishers than 98.1% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
Furthermore, with 1.4% of employed workers living in the neighborhood active in the military, this neighborhood has the distinction of having a higher proportion of people in the military than 95.0% of American neighborhoods. This is a major shaper of the neighborhood's culture and character.
Regardless of the means by which residents commute, this neighborhood has a length of commute that is notable. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 64.9% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Finnish and Norwegian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 12.8% have Norwegian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Greek at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Wadena are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 80.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 16.0% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 62.1% 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, 31.5% 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 23.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (20.6%), and 17.5% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 95.6% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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 Wadena, MN, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (36.5%). There are also a number of people of Norwegian ancestry (12.8%), and residents who report Finnish roots (7.1%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (5.8%), along with some English ancestry residents (5.4%), 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 (64.9% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (80.7%) 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 (8.5%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.