Irons is a very small town located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 2,316 people and just one neighborhood, Irons is the 332nd largest community in Michigan.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Irons is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Irons is a town of sales and office workers, service providers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Irons who work in sales jobs (17.13%), management occupations (10.63%), and office and administrative support (9.88%).
A relatively large number of people in Irons telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 10.87% 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.
Another notable thing is that Irons is an extremely popular vacation destination. A significant portion of the population is seasonal. During the vacation season, the town experiences a large influx of people who take up residence in second homes they own in the area. As the vacation season ends, the population drops again, leaving behind a substantially quieter and smaller town.
It is a fairly quiet town 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!) Irons 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. Irons has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Irons than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Irons may be for you.
One downside of living in Irons, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 31.89 minutes every day commuting to work.
Being a small town, Irons does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The percentage of adults in Irons with college degrees is slightly lower than the national average of 21.84% for all communities. 15.25% of adults in Irons have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Irons in 2022 was $33,912, which is middle income relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $135,648 for a family of four. However, Irons contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Irons home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Irons residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Irons include German, English, Irish, Polish, and Dutch.
The most common language spoken in Irons is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and German/Yiddish.
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.
Despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 71.8%, which is higher than 99.8% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, unpopulated, and rural, the neighborhood is one of the least crowded neighborhoods in all of America. If you like open space, no traffic, and lots of room, this neighborhood may be just what you are looking for. According to NeighborhoodScout's leading research, this neighborhood is less densely populated than 96.1% of the neighborhoods in America. 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.
From major sales accounts to fast-food workers, sales and service employees are often the backbone of the local economy. In the neighborhood, they truly stand out. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis identifies this neighborhood as having a higher percentage of sales and service workers than 95.4% of all American neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Dutch and Lithuanian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Dutch ancestry and 2.3% have Lithuanian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 7.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 96.6% 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 Irons are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 78.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 4.6% 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 65.3% of America'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, 37.8% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 26.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (24.3%), and 11.4% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 98.0% of households. Some people also speak Polish (7.6%).
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 Irons, MI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (17.2%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (12.8%), and residents who report Irish roots (10.0%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (7.2%), along with some Dutch ancestry residents (7.2%), 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 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (25.8% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (80.9%) 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 (6.7%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.