Photo: John Schanlaub · CC BY 2.0With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Thorntown works elsewhere
Only 3% work in Thorntown; the top destination outside it is Indianapolis (24%, 35 miles). 171 jobs are based in Thorntown, and 663 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Thorntown is better than 61% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Thorntown: the figures worth knowing
Thorntown’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Thorntown is Indianapolis, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 24% of working residents (159) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Thorntown is a place people come home to
There are 171 jobs based in Thorntown, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Thorntown has about 930 people in it, 35% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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; with 663 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Thorntown gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Thorntown’s grade up (ahead of 66% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($73,750, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (1.4%) is left out: Thorntown’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Thorntown could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Where in the region Thorntown works
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.
Thorntown on a workday afternoon
On a workday 646 residents head out to work, 17 work right here, and 154 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Thorntown on a workday afternoon, 35% 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 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Thorntown: the destinations
Where Thorntown clocks in
24% of workers
19% 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.
Making and building: 30% of jobs based in Thorntown
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Thorntown, 2013 → 2023: 206 → 171. 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 Thorntown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Thorntown’s commute takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Thorntown workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 511 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 in Thorntown is mostly behind the wheel
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Indiana, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 561 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). 4.9% of Thorntown households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Thorntown’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Thorntown ranks 1,447th of 5,877 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Meridian Hills IN | 1,800 | $212K | 0.8% | 3.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 104 | Galena IN | 1,549 | $128K | 1.8% | 4.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 114 | Ogden Dunes IN | 1,163 | $117K | 3.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,445 | Hennepin Township IL | 1,236 | $89K | 5.9% | 3.8% | 9% | B |
| 1,446 | Harrison Township OH | 1,262 | $68K | 4.8% | 17.6% | 2% | B |
| 1,447 | Thorntown IN | 1,426 | $74K | 8.5% | 1.4% | 3% | B |
| 1,448 | Shamokin Dam PA | 1,623 | $69K | 5.6% | 1.5% | 3% | B |
| 1,449 | Bearcreek Township IN | 1,598 | $77K | 1.7% | 0.8% | 1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Thorntown, 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 Thorntown: questions
What is the median household income in Thorntown?
$73,750 (±$16,929) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Thorntown?
8.5%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Thorntown?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Thorntown work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Indianapolis (24%, 35 mi), Lebanon (19%, 10 mi), Jefferson Township (6%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Thorntown walkable?
Thorntown is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Thorntown without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Thorntown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Thorntown
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.