Big Run is a tiny borough located in the state of Pennsylvania. With a population of 633 people and just one neighborhood, Big Run is the 931st largest community in Pennsylvania. Much of the housing stock in Big Run was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic boroughs in the country.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Big Run is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 46.86% of the Big Run workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Big Run is a borough of sales and office workers, production and manufacturing workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Big Run who work in office and administrative support (14.23%), sales jobs (8.79%), and teaching (6.69%).
Also of interest is that Big Run has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
It is a fairly quiet borough 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!) Big Run 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. Big Run has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Big Run than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Big Run may be for you.
In Big Run, just 9.34% of people over 25 hold a college degree, which is very low compared to the rest of the nation, whereas the average among all cities is 21.84%.
The per capita income in Big Run in 2022 was $25,230, which is low income relative to Pennsylvania, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $100,920 for a family of four. However, Big Run contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Big Run home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Big Run residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Big Run include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Polish.
The most common language spoken in Big Run is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.
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.
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 48.8% of its working residents employed in such fields, which is a higher proportion than 98.6% of American neighborhoods.
Significantly, 23.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak German/Yiddish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.8% of the neighborhoods in America.
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 Big Run are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 70.1% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 24.0% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 74.4% 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, 48.8% 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 22.1% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (14.5%), and 13.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 75.9% of households. Other important languages spoken here include German/Yiddish, Italian and Polish.
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 Big Run, PA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (27.5%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (6.6%), and residents who report English roots (4.7%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (3.9%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (2.6%), 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 (37.8% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (74.3%) 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 (17.4%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.