Ocotillo is a tiny town located in the state of California. With a population of 215 people and just one neighborhood, Ocotillo is the 834th largest community in California.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Ocotillo is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 0.00% of the Ocotillo workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Ocotillo is a town of sales and office workers, transportation and shipping workers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Ocotillo who work in office and administrative support (0.00%), sales jobs (0.00%), and personal care services (0.00%).
Another notable thing is that Ocotillo 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.
Ocotillo’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the nation, making it a very safe place to live.
The town is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Ocotillo has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Ocotillo a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Ocotillo spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 0.00 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.
As is often the case in a small town, Ocotillo doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
The citizens of Ocotillo have a very low rate of college education: just 8.90% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, compared to a national average of 21.84% for all cities.
The per capita income in Ocotillo in 2022 was $12,340, which is low income relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $49,360 for a family of four. Ocotillo also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 43.84% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Ocotillo is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Ocotillo home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ocotillo residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Ocotillo include Portuguese, Yugoslavian, Other West Indian, West Indian, and U.S. Virgin Islander.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Ocotillo's cultural character, accounting for 26.71% of the town’s population.
The most common language spoken in Ocotillo is Spanish. Other important languages spoken here include English 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.
People
An interesting characteristic about the neighborhood is that there are more incarcerated people living here than 99.8% of neighborhoods in the U.S. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, currently with 1 out of every 100 adults in the country are incarcerated as a punishment for crimes committed. The extremely high incarceration rate of this neighborhood could mean that a prison, juvenile detention facility or other correctional facility occupies a large proportion of the neighborhood, or contains a large portion of the neighborhood's population.
In addition, neighborhoodScout's exclusive research revealed that 99.1% of the adult residents in the neighborhood do not have a 4-year college degree, which is a lower rate of college graduated adults than found in 98.8% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, one of the unique characteristics of the neighborhood revealed by analysis is that the per capita income of residents here is lower than that found in 97.2% of the neighborhoods in America.
Modes of Transportation
In the neighborhood, many people's commute means walking from the bedroom to the home office. NeighborhoodScout's analysis found that 38.0% of residents worked from home. This may not seem like a large number, but Scout's research shows that this is a higher percentage of people working from home than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in America. Often people who work from home are engaged in the creative or technological economy, such as is found in areas around Boston, and in Silicon Valley. Other times, people may be engaged in other businesses like trading stocks from home, or running a small beauty salon.
Occupations
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 99.1% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
Real Estate
Renter-occupied real estate is dominant in the neighborhood. The percentage of rental real estate here, according to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, is 84.5%, which is higher than 95.2% of the neighborhoods in America. If you were to buy and live in the property you bought here, you would be almost alone in doing so. Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 45.9% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 98.3% 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.
In addition, this neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 5 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 98.2% of America.
Furthermore, the real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 96.2% of all neighborhoods in America, with 33.6% of the occupied housing here being classified as mobile homes. So if you are looking for a mobile home, or you like the look and feel of mobile home parks, this neighborhood might have the setting you desire.
Diversity
Did you know that the neighborhood has more African and Sub-Saharan African ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 15.3% of this neighborhood's residents have African ancestry and 15.9% have Sub-Saharan African ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 0.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Mon-Khmer, which is the dominant language of Cambodia, at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Ocotillo are low income, making it among the lowest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 97.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 25.6% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 76.3% 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, 29.2% 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 26.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (24.0%), and 10.9% in farming, forestry, or commercial fishing.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 54.5% of households. Some people also speak English (43.6%).
Ethnicity / Ancestry
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 Ocotillo, CA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (54.9%). There are also a number of people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry (15.9%), and residents who report African roots (15.3%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (3.8%), along with some German ancestry residents (2.2%), among others. In addition, 13.7% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 (43.7% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.
Here most residents (62.0%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
