Photo: Chris Flook · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Fairmount commutes out: there are 0.3 jobs for every working resident
There are 334 jobs in Fairmount for 1,005 working residents. Fairmount grades C for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Fairmount stands out on work
The four measures behind Fairmount’s grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Fairmount is better than 28% of U.S. towns, #481 of 593 in Indiana. Unemployment holds Fairmount’s grade up (2.6%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (25.7%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fairmount could be anywhere from D to B−.
Fairmount’s commute takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairmount workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 966 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 many people are in Fairmount by day
On a workday 937 residents head out to work, 68 work right here, and 266 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Fairmount on a workday afternoon, 25% 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.
26% of working residents work in Marion
Where Fairmount clocks in
26% of workers
6% 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.
Fairmount works in goods: 31% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairmount, 2013 → 2023: 324 → 334. 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 Fairmount’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Fairmount, by distance
About 18% 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.
Fairmount is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fairmount is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns, #124 of 593 in Indiana. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Indiana, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 992 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). 3.5% of Fairmount households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Fairmount’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fairmount is 3,324th of 4,797 U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,600 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Clark Township IN | 3,026 | $138K | 5.2% | 0.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Swan Township IN | 2,327 | $112K | 0.7% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 198 | Wills Township IN | 2,111 | $113K | 1.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,322 | La Blanca TX | 2,998 | $56K | 19.2% | 5.5% | <1% | C |
| 3,323 | Mount Shasta CA | 3,071 | $48K | 17.5% | 0.0% | 36% | C |
| 3,324 | Fairmount IN | 2,670 | $52K | 25.7% | 2.6% | 7% | C |
| 3,325 | Tippecanoe Township IN | 2,472 | $61K | 14.5% | 4.5% | 2% | C |
| 3,326 | Moulton AL | 3,436 | $58K | 13.0% | 4.6% | 14% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,797 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Fairmount, 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 Fairmount: questions
What is the median household income in Fairmount?
$51,739 (±$11,263) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairmount?
25.7%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairmount?
24 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairmount work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Marion (26%, 9 mi), Gas City (6%, 6 mi), Indianapolis (6%, 51 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fairmount walkable?
Fairmount is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairmount without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fairmount, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairmount
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.