Bellingham, WA (Happy Valley West)

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 Happy Valley West neighborhood in Bellingham are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 81.0% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 4.1% 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 67.7% 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 Happy Valley West neighborhood, 40.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional 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 23.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (21.1%), and 15.5% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the Happy Valley West neighborhood is English, spoken by 89.2% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (7.1%).

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 Happy Valley West neighborhood in Bellingham, WA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (14.4%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (12.9%), and residents who report German roots (12.5%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (7.1%), along with some Norwegian ancestry residents (6.2%), 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 Happy Valley West neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (38.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (64.5%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also ride the bus to get to work (7.7%) and 5.6% 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.