Olar is a tiny town located in the state of South Carolina. With a population of 207 people and just one neighborhood, Olar is the 267th largest community in South Carolina.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Olar is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 35.19% of the Olar workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Olar is a town of sales and office workers, service providers, and farmers, fishers, or foresters. There are especially a lot of people living in Olar who work in office and administrative support (18.52%), farm management occupations (16.67%), and healthcare (14.81%).
Another important characteristic of Olar is that a lot of people work in agricultural jobs, especially compared to most other communities in America, and there are quite a number of farms in town.
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, Olar has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Olar a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
One downside of living in Olar, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 38.38 minutes every day commuting to work.
Olar is very much a car-oriented town. This is because the population of Olar isn't large enough or dense enough to support an extensive public transit system. It has a lot of rural roads, and the distance between houses can be quite large, which together tends to discourage walking and bicycling to work. 98.15% of residents commute to work in their own car (and the drive is typically to a job out of town). People also tend to drive out of town for other services as well, such as shopping, doctors appointments, and more.
As is often the case in a small town, Olar doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
In Olar, just 11.29% of people have at least a bachelor's degree, which is quite a bit lower than the national average for cities and towns of 21.84%.
The per capita income in Olar in 2022 was $26,696, which is middle income relative to South Carolina, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $106,784 for a family of four. However, Olar contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Olar is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Olar home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Olar residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Olar include English, Irish, German, Scottish, and Welsh.
The most common language spoken in Olar is English. Other important languages spoken here include African languages and Arabic.
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.
The real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 97.5% of all neighborhoods in America, with 38.7% 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.
In addition, despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 38.9%, which is higher than 97.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Furthermore, uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 13 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 96.4% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
It used to be that most Americans lived on the farm, or otherwise made their living from the land, the forests, or the sea. With global trade and an economy increasingly based on providing services to one another, fewer people farm, fish or harvest timber now than at any time in American history. But according to NeighborhoodScout's leading analysis, the neighborhood stands apart from most American neighborhood due to the proportion of its residents still working in these fields. With 4.6% of the workforce so employed, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of such workers than 96.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
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 Olar are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 74.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 41.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 89.7% 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, 38.1% 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 22.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (20.4%), and 14.2% in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 99.8% of households.
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 Olar, SC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (5.7%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (3.6%), and residents who report Irish roots (2.3%), and some of the residents are also of Norwegian ancestry (1.1%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (1.1%), 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 (35.6% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (82.0%) 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 (11.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.