Photo: Nyttend · Public domainMarion has lower household incomes than 94% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 29.6%, next to 12.3% for Indiana as a whole. Jobs and income earn Marion D; getting around on foot earns it A. About two in five work in Marion; the top destination outside it is Indianapolis (6%, 59 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Marion apart on work
Marion is where the jobs are
Marion has 17,952 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Marion are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 24 across Indiana. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Indiana worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Why Marion gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Marion is better than 10% of U.S. towns, #578 of 593 in Indiana. Job access by car holds Marion’s grade up (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Marion stays D.
A workday in Marion: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 5,930 residents head out to work, 4,394 work right here, and 13,558 people come in from elsewhere.
About 36,000 people are in Marion on a workday afternoon, 27% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Marion’s commute takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Marion workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 10,448 commuters (the 7% 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.
Where Marion’s workers come from
Where Marion clocks in
6% 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.
What Marion’s employers do
17,952 jobs are based in Marion.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Marion, 2013 → 2023: 16,652 → 17,952. 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 Marion’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Marion
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.
In Marion, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Marion is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns, #14 of 593 in Indiana. Both inputs place Marion 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 11,198 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). 9.2% of Marion households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Marion’s commuters take a bus or train.
Marion next to U.S. towns of 20,000 to 38,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | St. John IN | 24,841 | $131K | 2.1% | 2.3% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Zionsville IN | 33,624 | $172K | 3.1% | 2.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Vernon Township IN | 20,047 | $108K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,392 | Corcoran CA | 22,358 | $60K | 20.7% | 11.1% | 19% | D |
| 1,393 | Yucca Valley CA | 21,887 | $60K | 15.7% | 6.6% | 15% | D |
| 1,394 | Marion IN | 28,234 | $43K | 29.6% | 7.7% | 43% | D |
| 1,395 | Danville IL | 28,138 | $46K | 24.5% | 8.3% | 40% | D |
| 1,396 | Marion OH | 35,587 | $48K | 22.4% | 9.4% | 17% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,409 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Marion, 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 Marion: questions
What is the median household income in Marion?
$43,343 (±$3,933) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Marion?
29.6%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Marion?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Marion work?
43% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Indianapolis (6%, 59 mi), Gas City (4%, 6 mi), Fort Wayne (3%, 46 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Marion walkable?
Marion is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.1 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Marion without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Marion, from the people who make the trip.
More of Marion
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.