Photo: Chris Flook · CC BY-SA 4.0Knightstown has lower household incomes than 88% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Knightstown C; getting around on foot earns it B+. Below the poverty line: 22.0% of residents, where Indiana as a whole has 12.3%. About one in ten stay in Knightstown for work; outside it, Indianapolis is the main destination (10%, 33 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Knightstown apart on work
Inside Knightstown’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Knightstown is better than 26% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Knightstown’s grade up (ahead of 61% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Knightstown could be anywhere from D to B.
Short hops and long hauls from Knightstown
About 19% 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 daily commute in and out of Knightstown
On a workday 632 residents head out to work, 72 work right here, and 542 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.87 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Knightstown: the destinations
Where Knightstown clocks in
10% of workers
7% 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.
The kinds of work in Knightstown
614 jobs are based in Knightstown.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Knightstown, 2013 → 2023: 693 → 614. 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 Knightstown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 28 minutes to work from Knightstown
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Knightstown workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,003 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.
In Knightstown, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Knightstown is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Knightstown near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,057 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). 7.7% of Knightstown households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Knightstown’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900, Knightstown ranks 3,652nd of 5,404 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Meridian Hills IN | 1,800 | $212K | 0.8% | 3.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Galena IN | 1,549 | $128K | 1.8% | 4.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 165 | Foxcliff Estates IN | 1,674 | $142K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,650 | Winfield NY | 1,861 | $67K | 15.2% | 7.7% | 9% | C |
| 3,651 | Oliver Township PA | 2,044 | $63K | 8.3% | 3.0% | 6% | C |
| 3,652 | Knightstown IN | 2,165 | $50K | 22.0% | 4.3% | 10% | C |
| 3,653 | Chesterfield IN | 2,523 | $59K | 11.9% | 11.9% | 5% | C |
| 3,654 | Waskom TX | 1,980 | $56K | 17.1% | 3.8% | 9% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Knightstown, 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 Knightstown: questions
What is the median household income in Knightstown?
$49,792 (±$18,133) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Knightstown?
22.0%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Knightstown?
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 Knightstown work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Indianapolis (10%, 33 mi), Greenfield (7%, 13 mi), Wayne Township (7%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Knightstown walkable?
Knightstown is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Knightstown without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Knightstown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Knightstown
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.