Gowen is a very small town located in the state of Michigan. With a population of 2,557 people and just one neighborhood, Gowen is the 308th largest community in Michigan.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Gowen is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 51.10% of the Gowen workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Gowen is a town of production and manufacturing workers, sales and office workers, and construction workers and builders. There are especially a lot of people living in Gowen who work in office and administrative support (15.29%), management occupations (8.40%), and teaching (3.86%).
Another notable thing is that Gowen 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.
Residents will find that the town is relatively quiet. This is because it is not over-populated, and it has fewer college students, renters, and young children - all of whom can be noisy at times. So, if you're looking for a relatively peaceful place to live, Gowen is worth considering.
As is often the case in a small town, Gowen doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The citizens of Gowen are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 23.05% of adults in Gowen having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Gowen in 2022 was $29,696, which is lower middle income relative to Michigan and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $118,784 for a family of four. However, Gowen contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Gowen home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Gowen residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Gowen include German, Dutch, English, Irish, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Gowen is English. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Spanish.
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Gowen, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
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 48.9% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 98.7% of American neighborhoods.
Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 30.8% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 95.4% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Dutch and Danish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 11.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Dutch ancestry and 3.2% have Danish 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 Gowen are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 50.0% of the neighborhoods in America. With 23.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 74.5% 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, 48.9% 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 20.7% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (19.0%), and 9.2% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
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 English, spoken by 96.8% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish, Spanish and Italian.
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in Gowen, MI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (20.3%). There are also a number of people of Dutch ancestry (11.9%), and residents who report English roots (10.6%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (7.8%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (6.5%), 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 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (34.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (74.5%) 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 (18.5%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.