Photo: Michael Walter, a.k.a. Cuppysfriend · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Auburn (5.9%) than in 73% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers (Indiana 11%). Auburn grades C+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. About one in five stay in Auburn for work; outside it, Fort Wayne is the main destination (22%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Auburn in brief
Auburn trades workers with the towns around it
Auburn has about as many jobs (7,407) as working residents (6,480), but they are mostly different people: 5,059 residents leave for work each day while 5,986 people come in. Only 19% of the jobs in Auburn are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Auburn and Fort Wayne trade workers both ways
Fort Wayne is the top workplace for Auburn residents (22%) and also where the most people who work in Auburn come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Auburn are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 24 across Indiana. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Indiana worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
The four measures behind Auburn’s grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Auburn is better than 44% of U.S. towns, #378 of 593 in Indiana. Job access by car holds Auburn’s grade up (ahead of 64% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Auburn could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The daily commute in and out of Auburn
On a workday 5,059 residents head out to work, 1,421 work right here, and 5,986 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.14 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Auburn: the destinations
Where Auburn clocks in
6% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
From Auburn, about 18 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Auburn workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,471 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Indiana: 85% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Goods, not services: 33% of the jobs in Auburn
7,407 jobs are based in Auburn.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Auburn, 2013 → 2023: 7,679 → 7,407. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Auburn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Auburn
About 15% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
For most of Auburn, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Auburn is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns, #237 of 593 in Indiana. Both inputs place Auburn near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,752 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.3% of Auburn households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Auburn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000, Auburn ranks 1,512th of 2,227 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Whitestown IN | 15,767 | $124K | 2.8% | 1.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | McCordsville IN | 13,094 | $111K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | Brown Township IN | 15,523 | $140K | 2.3% | 2.8% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,510 | Frankfort IN | 16,837 | $57K | 12.9% | 3.0% | 34% | C+ |
| 1,511 | Vienna WV | 10,321 | $60K | 10.2% | 3.5% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,512 | Auburn IN | 14,068 | $69K | 9.8% | 5.9% | 22% | C+ |
| 1,513 | Burlington NJ | 10,243 | $85K | 16.6% | 12.2% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,514 | Alsip IL | 18,483 | $67K | 12.1% | 8.9% | 6% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Auburn, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Auburn: questions
What is the median household income in Auburn?
$68,750 (±$12,743) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Auburn?
9.8%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Auburn?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Auburn work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Wayne (22%, 20 mi), Garrett (6%, 4 mi), Butler (4%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Auburn walkable?
Auburn is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Auburn without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Auburn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Auburn
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.