Photo: Mitchell Cooper · CC BY-SA 4.0Making a living in Chalmers
A typical one-way commute lasts 31 minutes, where Indiana has 24 and the U.S. 26. Only 4% work in Chalmers; the top destination outside it is Lafayette (20%, 18 miles). 3% of workers work from home, where Indiana as a whole has 11%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Chalmers, in brief
About 31 minutes to work from Chalmers
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chalmers workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 257 commuters (the 3% 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.
A workday in Chalmers: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 263 residents head out to work, 12 work right here, and 207 people come in from elsewhere.
About 470 people are in Chalmers on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.80 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.
Where Chalmers goes to work
Where Chalmers clocks in
16% of workers
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.
The kinds of work in Chalmers
219 jobs are based in Chalmers.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chalmers, 2013 → 2023: 167 → 219. 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 Chalmers’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Chalmers
About 19% 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.
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 Chalmers: questions
What is the median household income in Chalmers?
$70,500 (±$7,848) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chalmers?
8.0%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chalmers?
31 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chalmers work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lafayette (20%, 18 mi), Monticello (16%, 8 mi), West Lafayette (6%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Chalmers without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Chalmers, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chalmers
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.