Photo: Public domain · Public domainNew Castle has lower household incomes than 86% of U.S. towns
About one in five stay in New Castle for work; outside it, Henry Township is the main destination (10%, 1 miles). The poverty rate is 20.1% (Indiana 12.3%). Jobs and income earn New Castle C−; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
New Castle’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, New Castle is better than 23% of U.S. towns, #513 of 593 in Indiana. Job access by car holds New Castle’s grade up (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($51,606, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, New Castle could be anywhere from D to C+.
The daily flow of workers through New Castle
On a workday 5,114 residents head out to work, 1,493 work right here, and 3,354 people come in from elsewhere.
About 16,000 people are in New Castle on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.73 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Out of New Castle to work: where people go
Where New Castle clocks in
9% of workers
5% 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 New Castle
4,847 jobs are based in New Castle.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in New Castle, 2013 → 2023: 4,791 → 4,847. 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 New Castle’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From New Castle, about 21 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of New Castle workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,916 commuters (the 9% 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 New Castle, by distance
About 16% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: New Castle
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, New Castle is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #67 of 593 in Indiana. Both inputs place New Castle 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 7,586 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). 10.2% of New Castle households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of New Castle’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,999 U.S. towns of 12,000 to 23,000, New Castle comes 1,717th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 41 | Whitestown IN | 15,767 | $124K | 2.8% | 1.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 71 | McCordsville IN | 13,094 | $111K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 82 | Brown Township IN | 15,523 | $140K | 2.3% | 2.8% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,715 | Hidalgo TX | 15,376 | $59K | 21.1% | 8.8% | 10% | C− |
| 1,716 | Tifton GA | 17,595 | $45K | 23.5% | 3.4% | 33% | C− |
| 1,717 | New Castle IN | 17,390 | $52K | 20.1% | 4.9% | 23% | C− |
| 1,718 | Morganton NC | 17,849 | $51K | 25.7% | 3.8% | 36% | C− |
| 1,719 | Show Low AZ | 12,471 | $60K | 12.2% | 4.7% | 39% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,999 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 New Castle, 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 New Castle: questions
What is the median household income in New Castle?
$51,606 (±$4,517) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in New Castle?
20.1%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from New Castle?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in New Castle work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Henry Township (10%, 1 mi), Indianapolis (9%, 42 mi), Muncie (5%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is New Castle walkable?
New Castle is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around New Castle without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from New Castle, from the people who make the trip.
More of New Castle
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.