Photo: Nyttend · Public domainPrairie Township has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
Jobs and income earn Prairie Township B+; getting around on foot earns it D. Prairie Township has 356 jobs, and 789 of its residents work somewhere. Only 2% work in Prairie Township itself; outside it, Warsaw draws the most (26%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Prairie Township and work: the main findings
Prairie Township and Warsaw trade workers both ways
Warsaw is the top workplace for Prairie Township residents (26%) and also where the most people who work in Prairie Township come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Prairie Township makes and builds things
49% of the jobs based in Prairie Township are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Prairie Township residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 49%. The jobs ↓
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; with 789 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Prairie Township gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Prairie Township is better than 70% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Prairie Township’s grade up (4.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 47% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (3.0%) is left out: Prairie 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, Prairie Township could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Where Prairie Township goes to work
Where Prairie Township clocks in
26% of workers
7% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 49% of the jobs in Prairie Township
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prairie Township, 2014 → 2024: 371 → 356. 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 Prairie Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Prairie Township
On a workday 770 residents head out to work, 19 work right here, and 337 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Prairie Township on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
About 27 minutes to work from Prairie Township
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prairie Township workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 720 commuters (the 13% 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.
How many miles Prairie Township commutes
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.
Driving is how Prairie Township gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prairie Township is more walkable than 5% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Prairie Township 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 828 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). 11.8% of Prairie Township households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Prairie Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Prairie Township places 1,178th of 6,085 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Meridian Hills IN | 1,800 | $212K | 0.8% | 3.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Galena IN | 1,549 | $128K | 1.8% | 4.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 171 | Foxcliff Estates IN | 1,674 | $142K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,176 | Marion Township PA | 1,962 | $80K | 6.4% | 3.2% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,177 | Osino NV | 1,341 | $93K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,178 | Prairie Township IN | 1,780 | $84K | 4.7% | 3.0% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,179 | Ingham Township MI | 2,395 | $112K | 4.3% | 6.2% | 5% | B+ |
| 1,180 | Osceola WI | 1,874 | $103K | 8.4% | 3.1% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 7% | 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 Prairie Township, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
Prairie Township and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Plain Township (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Prairie Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie Township | – | B+ | D | 27 min | $84,333 |
| Harrison Township | under 3% | B+ | D | 25 min | $74,904 |
| Jefferson Township | under 3% | A | B− | 20 min | $101,481 |
| Scott Township | under 3% | B+ | B− | 15 min | $86,629 |
| Etna Township | 2% | C+ | C | 20 min | $59,048 |
| Plain Township | 3% | B− | C− | 18 min | $70,511 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Prairie 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 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 Prairie Township: questions
What is the median household income in Prairie Township?
$84,333 (±$8,227) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prairie Township?
4.7%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prairie Township?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prairie Township work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Warsaw (26%, 6 mi), Nappanee (7%, 10 mi), Elkhart (5%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Prairie Township walkable?
Prairie Township is more walkable than 5% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prairie Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Prairie Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prairie Township
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.