Photo: Nyttend · Public domainPenn Township’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
Penn Township grades D for jobs and income and C− for walkability. The poverty rate is 17.3%, against 12.3% across Indiana. Home is the office for 2% of workers (Indiana 11%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Penn Township, in brief
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Penn Township
On income, poverty and job access, Penn Township is better than 8% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Penn Township’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($38,917, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.2%) is left out: Penn Township’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Penn Township could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Penn Township quiets down on a workday
On a workday 435 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 70 people come in from elsewhere.
About 750 people are in Penn Township on a workday afternoon, 33% fewer than live here.
0.17 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.
22% of working residents work in Portland
Where Penn Township clocks in
22% of workers
7% 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.
Penn Township works in goods: 32% of its jobs
76 jobs are based in Penn Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Penn Township, 2013 → 2023: 111 → 76. 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 Penn Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Penn Township takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Penn Township workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 385 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.
Where in the region Penn Township works
About 25% 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.
Penn Township is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Penn Township is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Indiana, on an EPA index of 3.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 395 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). 6.6% of Penn Township households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Penn Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Penn Township ranks: 3,229th of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Ogden Dunes IN | 1,163 | $117K | 3.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Campbell Township IN | 1,172 | $122K | 0.0% | 7.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Greenville IN | 1,452 | $135K | 5.6% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,227 | Russells Point OH | 1,323 | $42K | 26.2% | 5.3% | 6% | D |
| 3,228 | Lockney TX | 1,340 | $55K | 17.7% | 8.6% | 18% | D |
| 3,229 | Penn Township IN | 1,113 | $39K | 17.3% | 2.2% | 1% | D |
| 3,230 | Circle City AZ | 1,089 | $42K | 14.3% | 4.8% | 0% | D |
| 3,231 | Woodall OK | 1,050 | $59K | 19.0% | 12.7% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Penn Township, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
How Penn Township compares with the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Penn Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penn Township | – | D | C− | 25 min | $38,917 |
| Harrison Township | under 2% | C+ | C | 30 min | $61,346 |
| Knox Township | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Jackson Township | under 2% | — | — | 33 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Knox Township and Jackson Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Penn Township’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Penn Township: questions
What is the median household income in Penn Township?
$38,917 (±$18,461) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Penn Township?
17.3%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Penn Township?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Penn Township work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Portland (22%, 11 mi), Indianapolis (7%, 73 mi), Muncie (6%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Penn Township walkable?
Penn Township is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 3.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Penn Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Penn Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Penn Township
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.