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What do we mean by a neighborhood?
NeighborhoodScout® uses the official government designation for neighborhoods - the census tract.
Census tracts are small, relatively permanent subdivisions of a county that are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in conjunction with local authorities all across the country to define real neighborhoods that are bounded to contain areas with homogeneous population characteristics (including economic status, lifestyle, and living conditions). Census tracts usually have 4,000 persons, but can range between 1,500 and 8,000 persons. This is the most fine-grained area for which detailed information is made available from the government, to protect the individual privacy of each of us. Because census tracts are based on population, they vary in size depending on the density of settlement. In urban areas, they are small, and in rural areas they can cover an entire small town or even a few small towns in very rural areas.
Since census tracts are subdivisions of a county, we did a spatial overlay of the census tracts onto city and town boundaries using a geographic information system to properly assign each census tract to its appropriate city or town. Then we named each census tract to the local colloquially recognized neighborhood name for that spot (e.g., Boston, MA (Dorchester). If there was not a name available, we named the census tract by the largest street intersection in the census tract (e.g., Worcester, MA (Lincoln St/Plantation St)
Why we don't use Zip Codes as neighborhoods
Zip codes were developed by the Postal Service for the purpose of delivering mail, but were never intended to define coherent neighborhoods. In addition, Zip Codes can have as many as 10 distinctly different census tracts contained within them. When distinct census tracts are blended together in a single Zip Code, the data reflects their average conditions and often gives a false sense of the area. The result is that potentially great matching neighborhoods can be missed, and erroneous matches can also be produced and delivered to you.
Using census tracts makes great matches possible, and helps people find the areas that are best for them and their families. Because we are committed to providing the highest possible quality and finding the neighborhoods that best meet your criteria, we use census tracts. And, as always, we show you the actual street map of the neighborhood so you know exactly where your best matching neighborhood is located.
What is a Condition Alert?
A condition alert is a condition in the neighborhood that triggers an alert. NeighborhoodScout contains condition alerts to highlight conditions that are extreme, whether good or bad. This helps answer crucial questions about the state of the neighborhood being evaluated, such as:
What are the risks of violent crime here?
Is the risk of home break-ins or other property crimes increasing?
Does real estate here hold its value?
Are the trends in local vacancies or unemployment concerning?
...and dozens more.
Information at a glance that you need to know to invest, appraise or finance a property.
West Hazleton is a somewhat small borough located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 5,171 people and just one neighborhood, West Hazleton is the 288th largest community in Pennsylvania. Much of the housing stock in West Hazleton was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic boroughs in the country.
Occupations and Workforce
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, West Hazleton is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 43.06% of the West Hazleton workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, West Hazleton is a borough of sales and office workers, construction workers and builders, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in West Hazleton who work in office and administrative support (14.49%), sales jobs (6.19%), and food service (5.79%).
Setting & Lifestyle
West Hazleton 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.
Demographics
In terms of college education, West Hazleton is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 17.52% of adults 25 and older in West Hazleton have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in West Hazleton in 2022 was $19,415, which is low income relative to Pennsylvania and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $77,660 for a family of four. However, West Hazleton contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
West Hazleton is an extremely ethnically-diverse borough. The people who call West Hazleton home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in West Hazleton, accounting for 65.63% of the borough’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of West Hazleton residents report their race to be White, followed by Native Hawaiian. Important ancestries of people in West Hazleton include Italian, German, Polish, Irish, and Jamaican.
West Hazleton also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 35.05%.
The most common language spoken in West Hazleton is Spanish. Other important languages spoken here include English and Polish.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
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.
Modes of Transportation
In the neighborhood, carpooling is still a popular way to get to and from work. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that 29.3% of commuters carpool here, which is more than in 98.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Real Estate
If you love row houses and attached homes, you will probably really like the neighborhood. The ambiance, the charm, of row houses is something special. And in sheer abundance of row houses, this neighborhood truly stands out. The real estate here has a higher proportion of row houses and attached homes than nearly any neighborhood in America. In fact, 29.9% of the residential real estate here is classified as row houses and attached homes.
Occupations
NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research identifies the neighborhood as having one of the highest concentrations of people employed in manufacturing or as laborers of any neighborhood in America. In fact, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs nationally, this neighborhood has 43.1% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 96.2% of American neighborhoods.
People
The neighborhood stands out within Pennsylvania for its college student friendly environment. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood is home to a number of college students, is relatively walkable, and above average in safety. In combination, this makes it stand out for a good place for college students to consider. Because a number of college students live here, this neighborhood may be close to a college campus and offer certain amenities nearby geared towards the student body. While it's not an environment for everyone, ambitious scholars can enjoy seasonal excitement between semesters and school breaks, and parents can rest easy knowing that the area has an above average safety rating. For each of these reasons, the neighborhood is rated among the top 6.2% of college-friendly places to live in PA.
Diversity
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Dominican ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 44.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Dominican ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 11.3% 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 98.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
The Neighbors
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 West Hazleton are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 86.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 26.7% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 78.3% of U.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, 43.1% 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 21.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (18.5%), and 17.1% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
Languages
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 54.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English, Polish and Italian.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
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 West Hazleton, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Dominican (44.0%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (7.8%), and residents who report German roots (6.9%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (5.7%), along with some Puerto Rican ancestry residents (5.6%), among others. In addition, 35.0% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
Getting to Work
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 under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (38.0% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (70.5%) 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 (29.3%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
SCOUT’s patented match algorithm identifies the most similar neighborhoods to a subject location, and quantifies the similarity to the subject location. This allows analysts to identify the most similar neighborhoods in a local market area for appraisals, investments, and research.
The algorithm uses 273 neighborhood conditions, identifies the dominant dimensions underlying the conditions and calculates the similarity. This captures the true culture and character of locations, economic conditions, and trends.
The closer to 100% means the locations are nearly identical. 80% is a very good, but not excellent match, and so forth.
