Photo: Public domain · Public domainAt 1.7%, unemployment in Tipton is lower than in 88% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Tipton is behind 74% of U.S. towns. The two grades for Tipton are B− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in five stay in Tipton for work; outside it, Indianapolis is the main destination (12%, 35 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Tipton stands out on work
Tipton trades workers with the towns around it
Tipton has about as many jobs (2,579) as working residents (2,220), but they are mostly different people: 1,723 residents leave for work each day while 2,082 people come in. Only 19% of the jobs in Tipton are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Tipton’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Tipton is Indianapolis, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (266) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Tipton makes and builds things
35% of the jobs based in Tipton are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Tipton residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 28%. The jobs ↓
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.
The figures behind Tipton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Tipton is better than 48% of U.S. towns, #335 of 593 in Indiana. Unemployment holds Tipton’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (17.7%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Tipton could be anywhere from C to B.
The daily commute in and out of Tipton
On a workday 1,723 residents head out to work, 497 work right here, and 2,082 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.16 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Near or far: the trip to work from Tipton
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.
Goods jobs make up 35% of work in Tipton
2,579 jobs are based in Tipton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tipton, 2013 → 2023: 2,825 → 2,579. 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 Tipton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Out of Tipton to work: where people go
Where Tipton clocks in
12% 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.
From Tipton, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tipton workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,212 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Tipton
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tipton is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns, #82 of 593 in Indiana. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Indiana, on an EPA index of 7.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,388 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). 4.0% of Tipton households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Tipton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,582 U.S. towns of 3,700 to 7,100, Tipton comes 2,026th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | Milan Township IN | 4,066 | $120K | 1.3% | 0.0% | 9% | A+ |
| 93 | Worth Township IN | 6,688 | $123K | 4.1% | 0.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 140 | Hidden Valley IN | 5,706 | $121K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,024 | Vilonia AR | 4,894 | $82K | 16.0% | 3.8% | 8% | B− |
| 2,025 | Sullivan IL | 4,310 | $63K | 10.3% | 2.4% | 30% | B− |
| 2,026 | Tipton IN | 5,263 | $60K | 17.7% | 1.7% | 22% | B− |
| 2,027 | Edgewood NM | 6,157 | $85K | 8.3% | 5.1% | 10% | B− |
| 2,028 | Randolph Township IN | 4,334 | $66K | 9.2% | 1.3% | 16% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,582 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Tipton, 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 Tipton: questions
What is the median household income in Tipton?
$59,828 (±$6,832) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tipton?
17.7%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tipton?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tipton work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Indianapolis (12%, 35 mi), Kokomo (10%, 13 mi), Noblesville (5%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tipton walkable?
Tipton is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tipton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tipton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tipton
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.