Oakridge is a very small city located in the state of Oregon. With a population of 3,158 people and just one neighborhood, Oakridge is the 116th largest community in Oregon.
Oakridge is a blue-collar town, with 39.30% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, Oakridge is a city of service providers, professionals, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Oakridge who work in maintenance occupations (17.27%), farm management occupations (11.86%), and law enforcement and fire fighting (10.91%).
Of important note, Oakridge is also a city of artists. Oakridge has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Oakridge’s character.
And if you like science, one thing you'll find is that Oakridge has lots of scientists living in town - whether they be life scientists, physical scientists (like astronomers), or social scientists (like geographers!). So, if you're scientific-minded, you might like it here too.
A relatively large number of people in Oakridge telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 16.63% 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.
It is a fairly quiet city 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!) Oakridge 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. Oakridge has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Oakridge than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Oakridge may be for you.
In Oakridge, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 31.43 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.
Being a small city, Oakridge does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
The citizens of Oakridge are slightly less educated than the national average of 21.84% for the average city or town: 14.16% of adults in Oakridge have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree
The per capita income in Oakridge in 2022 was $20,257, which is low income relative to Oregon and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $81,028 for a family of four. However, Oakridge contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Oakridge home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Oakridge residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Oakridge include English, German, Irish, Italian, and French Canadian.
The most common language spoken in Oakridge is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
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.
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 99.0% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
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 98.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
If your dream is to be able to ride your bike to work each day, look no further than this unique neighborhood. With 4.2% of residents in the neighborhood commuting on a bicycle to and from work daily, this neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 97.5% of all neighborhoods in the U.S., according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis.
Divorcees may find friendship and understanding in this neighborhood, as 19.6% of its residents are divorced. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis found that this divorce rate is higher than in 95.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Finnish and French Canadian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 4.9% have French Canadian 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 Oakridge are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 94.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 20.3% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 70.1% of U.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, 29.5% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 28.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (18.8%), and 13.0% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.2% of households. Some people also speak Italian (3.8%).
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 Oakridge, OR, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as English (23.1%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (19.3%), and residents who report Irish roots (13.1%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (10.0%), along with some French Canadian ancestry residents (4.9%), 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 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (46.7% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (63.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (9.9%) and 8.2% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.