Ottawa Lake is a very small town located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 4,626 people and just one neighborhood, Ottawa Lake is the 206th largest community in Michigan.
Ottawa Lake is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Ottawa Lake is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Ottawa Lake who work in management occupations (11.95%), healthcare (8.75%), and office and administrative support (8.32%).
Also of interest is that Ottawa Lake has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
A relatively large number of people in Ottawa Lake telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 10.22% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.
Because of many things, Ottawa Lake 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, Ottawa Lake really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Ottawa Lake 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.
Residents will find that the town is relatively quiet. This is because it is not over-populated, and it has fewer college students, renters, and young children - all of whom can be noisy at times. So, if you're looking for a relatively peaceful place to live, Ottawa Lake is worth considering.
As is often the case in a small town, Ottawa Lake doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
In terms of college education, Ottawa Lake is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 21.84% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 29.75% of adults in Ottawa Lake have a college degree.
The per capita income in Ottawa Lake in 2022 was $55,085, which is wealthy relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $220,340 for a family of four. However, Ottawa Lake contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Ottawa Lake home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ottawa Lake residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Ottawa Lake include German, English, Irish, Polish, and French.
The most common language spoken in Ottawa Lake is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian 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.
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 33.0% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 95.0% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
If you're nearing retirement age, or in retirement, the is an excellent choice for you to consider for top-quality retirement living. This neighborhood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as among the top 10.0% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in Michigan, combining peace and quiet, safety from crime, and offering diverse housing options from which retirees can choose. Maybe it's because of these amenities that a large proportion of the residents here are college educated seniors, mixed with other age groups. For these and other reasons, NeighborhoodScout identifies this neighborhood as a top-notch place to consider if you are thinking of or planning to retire in Michigan.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Polish and Belgian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 12.3% of this neighborhood's residents have Polish ancestry and 0.9% have Belgian ancestry.
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 Ottawa Lake are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 69.4% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 2.0% 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 75.0% 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, 39.7% 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 30.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (16.9%), and 12.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.5% of households. Some people also speak Italian (3.9%).
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 Ottawa Lake, MI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (28.5%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (18.9%), and residents who report Irish roots (12.6%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (12.3%), along with some French ancestry residents (3.9%), 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 between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (42.4% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (79.9%) 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 (8.8%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.