Photo: Chris Flook · CC BY-SA 4.0Charlestown has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Only 7% work in Charlestown; the top destination outside it is Jeffersonville (17%, 7 miles). Charlestown has 2,160 jobs, against 3,989 working residents. For jobs and income Charlestown is better than 57% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Charlestown
Income, poverty and work: Charlestown’s grade explained
Job access by car holds Charlestown’s grade up (ahead of 74% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (12.5%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Charlestown could be anywhere from C to A.
Out of Charlestown to work: where people go
Where Charlestown clocks in
17% of workers
9% 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.
Who leaves Charlestown for work, and who comes in
On a workday 3,707 residents head out to work, 282 work right here, and 1,878 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,000 people are in Charlestown on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
What Charlestown’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Charlestown, 2014 → 2024: 1,974 → 2,160. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Charlestown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 24 minutes in Charlestown
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Charlestown workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,754 commuters (the 6% 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.
How far it is to work from Charlestown
About 20% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Charlestown, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,002 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.7% of Charlestown households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Charlestown’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Charlestown ranks: 1,510th of 2,878 U.S. towns of 6,200 to 11,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 74 | Worth Township IN | 6,688 | $123K | 4.1% | 0.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 160 | Miller Township IN | 10,161 | $113K | 3.0% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 181 | Lakes of the Four Seasons IN | 7,402 | $122K | 3.1% | 0.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,508 | St. James NC | 7,318 | $116K | 4.3% | 6.2% | 5% | B |
| 1,509 | Hurricane WV | 7,367 | $71K | 8.5% | 3.6% | 6% | B |
| 1,510 | Charlestown IN | 8,802 | $77K | 12.5% | 4.0% | 7% | B |
| 1,511 | Rifle CO | 10,844 | $80K | 6.0% | 3.0% | 20% | B |
| 1,512 | Gulf Breeze FL | 7,067 | $104K | 6.0% | 7.8% | 12% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Charlestown, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
22% of Charlestown works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Charlestown workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlestown | – | B | B− | 24 min | $77,288 |
| Jeffersonville | 17% | B | A− | 20 min | $70,930 |
| Charlestown Township | 2% | B+ | C | 25 min | $92,021 |
| Utica Township | 3% | A | C | 21 min | $102,897 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Jeffersonville. Darker towns draw more of Charlestown’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Charlestown: questions
What is the median household income in Charlestown?
$77,288 (±$18,469) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Charlestown?
12.5%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Charlestown?
24 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Charlestown work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jeffersonville (17%, 7 mi), New Albany (9%, 12 mi), Louisville (8%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Charlestown walkable?
Charlestown is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Charlestown without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Charlestown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Charlestown
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.