Polk is a tiny borough located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 628 people and just one neighborhood, Polk is the 935th largest community in Pennsylvania. Much of the housing stock in Polk was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic boroughs in the country.
Polk is a blue-collar town, with 39.80% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Polk is a borough of service providers, transportation and shipping workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Polk who work in healthcare (9.18%), office and administrative support (8.84%), and maintenance occupations (8.84%).
Polk’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the nation, making it a very safe place to live.
The borough 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, Polk has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Polk a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
Polk is a small borough, 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 Polk with college degrees is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%: just 10.26% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Polk in 2022 was $21,014, which is low income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $84,056 for a family of four. However, Polk contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Polk also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 37.86% of its population below the federal poverty line.
The people who call Polk home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Polk residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Polk include German, Irish, Italian, Austrian, and English.
The most common language spoken in Polk is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and German/Yiddish.
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.
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.
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 8.2% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in Pennsylvania, 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 Pennsylvania.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Austrian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Austrian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.8% 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 95.8% 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 Polk are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 60.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 12.8% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 55.6% 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, 32.7% 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 26.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (25.2%), and 14.6% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 97.1% of households. Some people also speak Italian (4.5%).
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 Polk, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (25.2%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (15.6%), and residents who report English roots (10.2%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (6.0%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (3.4%), 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 (45.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (84.7%) 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 (8.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.