Whittemore is a tiny city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 479 people and just one neighborhood, Whittemore is the 396th largest community in Iowa. Whittemore has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.
When you are in Whittemore, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 45.43% of Whittemore’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, Whittemore is a city of managers, service providers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Whittemore who work in management occupations (11.80%), farm management occupations (9.14%), and office and administrative support (8.55%).
Another important characteristic of Whittemore is that a lot of people work in agricultural jobs, especially compared to most other communities in America, and there are quite a number of farms in town.
Because of many things, Whittemore is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Whittemore really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Whittemore perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
One of the benefits of Whittemore is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 19.20 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.
As is often the case in a small city, Whittemore doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
In terms of college education, Whittemore is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 20.24% of adults 25 and older in Whittemore have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Whittemore in 2022 was $37,326, which is upper middle income relative to Iowa and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $149,304 for a family of four. However, Whittemore contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Whittemore is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Whittemore home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Whittemore residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Whittemore include German, Irish, Dutch, Norwegian, and English.
The most common language spoken in Whittemore is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
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 Whittemore, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
This neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 10 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 97.1% of America.
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 96.2% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
The neighborhood is a great option for families, as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's research on this neighborhood. The combination of top public schools, low crime rates, and owner-occupied single family homes, make this neighborhood among the top 8.4% of family-friendly neighborhoods in the state of Iowa. Many other families also live here, making it easy to socialize and develop a sense of community. In addition, families here highly value education, as is reflected by the strength of the local schools.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more German and Swiss ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 49.3% of this neighborhood's residents have German ancestry and 1.9% have Swiss ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.6% 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 95.0% 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 Whittemore are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 59.8% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 3.8% 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 68.1% 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, 39.8% 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 26.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (17.0%), and 12.8% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.1% of households.
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 Whittemore, IA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (49.3%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (12.8%), and residents who report Norwegian roots (9.5%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (6.6%), along with some Dutch ancestry residents (3.1%), 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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (47.6% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (77.8%) 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 (9.1%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.