Otter Lake is a tiny village located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 358 people and just one neighborhood, Otter Lake is the 581st largest community in Michigan. Otter Lake has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic villages.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Otter Lake is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 37.29% of the Otter Lake workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Otter Lake is a village of sales and office workers, production and manufacturing workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Otter Lake who work in sales jobs (19.21%), office and administrative support (12.43%), and teaching (6.78%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 8.88% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.
It is a fairly quiet village because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Otter Lake has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Otter Lake has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Otter Lake than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Otter Lake may be for you.
One downside of living in Otter Lake is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Otter Lake, the average commute to work is 34.12 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.
Otter Lake is a small village, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The percentage of people in Otter Lake with college degrees is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%: just 10.27% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Otter Lake in 2022 was $28,580, which is middle income relative to Michigan, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $114,320 for a family of four. However, Otter Lake contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Otter Lake home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Otter Lake residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Otter Lake include German, Irish, English, Polish, and Italian.
The most common language spoken in Otter Lake is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Italian.
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.
One of the notable things about is that it is one of the quietest neighborhoods in America, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis and quantitative rating of quietness. When you are here, you will find it to be very quiet. If quiet and peaceful are your cup of tea, you may have found a great place for you.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Irish and Eastern European ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 25.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Irish ancestry and 1.9% have Eastern European ancestry.
The freedom of moving to new places versus the comfort of home. How much and how often people move not only can create diverse and worldly neighborhoods, but simultaneously it can produce a loss of intimacy with one's surroundings and a lack of connectedness to one's neighbors. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research has identified this neighborhood as unique with regard to the transience of its populace. More residents of the neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 96.6% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.
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 Otter Lake are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 40.2% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 5.9% 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 61.9% of America'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, 36.0% 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 28.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (24.7%), and 9.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.7% of households. Some people also speak Polish (5.8%).
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the neighborhood in Otter Lake, MI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (25.5%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (21.7%), and residents who report English roots (18.5%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (6.4%), along with some French ancestry residents (4.7%), 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 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (33.6% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (73.9%) 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 (15.5%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.