Photo: Chris Flook · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Eaton commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
253 jobs are based in Eaton for 714 working residents. Eaton grades C− for jobs and income and D for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 82% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Eaton
The figures behind Eaton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Eaton is better than 20% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Eaton’s grade up (ahead of 40% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($54,531, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.0%) is left out: Eaton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Eaton could be anywhere from D to C+.
28% of working residents work in Muncie
Where Eaton clocks in
28% of workers
11% of workers
8% 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 works in Eaton, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 680 residents head out to work, 34 work right here, and 219 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Eaton on a workday afternoon, 29% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 53% of the jobs in Eaton
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Eaton, 2013 → 2023: 247 → 253. 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 Eaton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Eaton takes about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Eaton workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 691 commuters (the 5% 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.
The commute from Eaton, by distance
About 23% 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.
The commute in Eaton is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Eaton is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 729 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). 3.4% of Eaton households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Eaton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100, Eaton comes 4,039th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Meridian Hills IN | 1,800 | $212K | 0.8% | 3.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 111 | Galena IN | 1,549 | $128K | 1.8% | 4.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 122 | Ogden Dunes IN | 1,163 | $117K | 3.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,037 | Fairfield Township OH | 1,124 | $65K | 17.4% | 5.1% | 1% | C− |
| 4,038 | Ethete WY | 1,326 | $81K | 15.5% | 28.6% | 13% | C− |
| 4,039 | Eaton IN | 1,586 | $55K | 14.8% | 3.0% | 5% | C− |
| 4,040 | Decatur MI | 1,646 | $62K | 19.7% | 7.3% | 9% | C− |
| 4,041 | Union City MI | 1,726 | $63K | 14.5% | 7.9% | 6% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Eaton, 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 Eaton: questions
What is the median household income in Eaton?
$54,531 (±$19,454) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Eaton?
14.8%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Eaton?
28 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Eaton work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Muncie (28%, 9 mi), Indianapolis (11%, 56 mi), Hamilton Township (8%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Eaton walkable?
Eaton is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Eaton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Eaton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Eaton
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.