Photo: Nyttend · Public domainConverse has 0.6 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
There are 246 jobs in Converse, against 429 working residents. Converse grades C− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers; Indiana has 11%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Converse, in brief
Where Converse’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Converse is better than 21% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Converse’s grade up (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (18.9%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (4.6%) is left out: Converse’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Converse could be anywhere from D to B+.
About 30 minutes to work from Converse
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Converse workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 337 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.
How a workday changes Converse
On a workday 409 residents head out to work, 20 work right here, and 226 people come in from elsewhere.
About 950 people are in Converse on a workday afternoon, 16% 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 2023, primary jobs.
15% of working residents work in Marion
Where Converse clocks in
15% of workers
5% 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.
Converse is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Converse, 2013 → 2023: 187 → 246. 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 Converse’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Converse, by distance
About 21% 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 Converse, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Converse is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.3% across Indiana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 346 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). 0.8% of Converse households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Converse’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,526th of 3,771: where Converse ranks among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Ogden Dunes IN | 1,163 | $117K | 3.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Campbell Township IN | 1,172 | $122K | 0.0% | 7.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Greenville IN | 1,452 | $135K | 5.6% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,524 | Hamilton Township MI | 1,365 | $65K | 14.4% | 3.6% | 2% | C− |
| 2,525 | Windsor IL | 1,035 | $63K | 15.3% | 2.8% | 6% | C− |
| 2,526 | Converse IN | 1,128 | $66K | 18.9% | 4.6% | 5% | C− |
| 2,527 | Dunlap IA | 1,030 | $49K | 7.2% | 5.7% | 14% | C− |
| 2,528 | Blossom TX | 1,493 | $55K | 9.4% | 1.2% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Converse, 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 Converse: questions
What is the median household income in Converse?
$65,536 (±$32,494) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Converse?
18.9%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Converse?
30 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Converse work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Marion (15%, 12 mi), Kokomo (10%, 15 mi), Indianapolis (5%, 57 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Converse walkable?
Converse is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Converse without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Converse, from the people who make the trip.
More of Converse
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.