Photo: Public domain · Public domainKendallville has lower household incomes than 76% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 12.4% of residents, where Indiana as a whole has 12.3%. The two grades for Kendallville are C+ for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. About one in four stay in Kendallville for work; outside it, Fort Wayne is the main destination (15%, 25 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Kendallville stands out on work
Kendallville makes and builds things
46% of the jobs based in Kendallville are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Kendallville residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 41%. The jobs ↓
Kendallville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Kendallville is Fort Wayne, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 15% of working residents (686) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Income, poverty and work: Kendallville’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Kendallville is better than 44% of U.S. towns, #370 of 593 in Indiana. Unemployment holds Kendallville’s grade up (3.3%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($58,939, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kendallville could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Goods jobs make up 46% of work in Kendallville
5,800 jobs are based in Kendallville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kendallville, 2014 → 2024: 7,053 → 5,800. 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 Kendallville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Kendallville works
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.
The daily flow of workers through Kendallville
On a workday 3,472 residents head out to work, 1,143 work right here, and 4,657 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Kendallville on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.26 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The towns that employ Kendallville’s residents
Where Kendallville clocks in
4% of workers
4% 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.
Getting to work from Kendallville takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kendallville workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,403 commuters (the 4% 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.
Getting around Kendallville: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kendallville is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns, #298 of 593 in Indiana. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% 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 4,609 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). 16.9% of Kendallville households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kendallville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Kendallville places 1,869th of 2,878 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 110 | McCordsville IN | 13,094 | $111K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 149 | Miller Township IN | 10,161 | $113K | 3.0% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 172 | Lakes of the Four Seasons IN | 7,402 | $122K | 3.1% | 0.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,867 | Kirby TX | 8,211 | $56K | 13.5% | 5.1% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,868 | Ave Maria FL | 8,258 | $103K | 11.0% | 5.9% | 23% | C+ |
| 1,869 | Kendallville IN | 10,371 | $59K | 12.4% | 3.3% | 25% | C+ |
| 1,870 | Bemiss GA | 9,201 | $93K | 10.7% | 6.3% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,871 | Templeton MA | 8,553 | $101K | 10.6% | 6.6% | 8% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Kendallville, 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 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 Kendallville: questions
What is the median household income in Kendallville?
$58,939 (±$9,791) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kendallville?
12.4%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kendallville?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kendallville work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Wayne (15%, 25 mi), Elkhart (4%, 40 mi), Auburn (4%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Kendallville walkable?
Kendallville is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kendallville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kendallville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kendallville
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.