Photo: Chris Flook · CC BY-SA 4.0A job hub: Topeka has 6.6 jobs per working resident, and 2,534 people come in to work
There are 2,608 jobs in Topeka; 394 of its residents have a job. The two grades for Topeka are C+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. Home is the office for 1% of workers (Indiana 11%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Topeka apart on work
Topeka fills up on a workday
Topeka has 2,608 jobs, 6.6 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,400 people are in town, more than double the 1,200 who live here. Day and night ↓
Topeka makes and builds things
83% of the jobs based in Topeka are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Topeka residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 56%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Topeka are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 24 across Indiana. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Indiana worker. Time on the road ↓
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 394 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Topeka gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Topeka is better than 42% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Topeka’s grade up (7.9%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($62,875, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (12.3%) is left out: Topeka’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, Topeka could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Topeka’s population more than doubles on a workday
On a workday 320 residents head out to work and 74 work right here.
About 3,400 people are in Topeka on a workday afternoon, 180% more 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.
A place that makes things: 83% of Topeka’s jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Topeka, 2013 → 2023: 2,268 → 2,608. 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 Topeka’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 17 minutes each way, quicker than most of Indiana
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Topeka workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 502 commuters (the 1% 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 Topeka’s workers come from
Where Topeka clocks in
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 commute from Topeka, 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.
Driving is how Topeka gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Topeka is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 13.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Indiana, on an EPA index of 5.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 508 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). 14.9% of Topeka households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Topeka’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Topeka ranks: 2,067th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 85 | Galena IN | 1,549 | $128K | 1.8% | 4.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 93 | Ogden Dunes IN | 1,163 | $117K | 3.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 123 | Foxcliff Estates IN | 1,674 | $142K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,065 | Keaau HI | 1,436 | $85K | 11.5% | 2.2% | 6% | C+ |
| 2,066 | Umapine OR | 1,215 | $56K | 1.2% | 0.0% | 0% | C+ |
| 2,067 | Topeka IN | 1,229 | $63K | 7.9% | 12.3% | 19% | C+ |
| 2,068 | Orfordville WI | 1,618 | $65K | 8.8% | 2.2% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,069 | Loami Township IL | 1,100 | $73K | 10.4% | 2.8% | <1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Topeka, 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 Topeka: questions
What is the median household income in Topeka?
$62,875 (±$9,748) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Topeka?
7.9%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Topeka?
17 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Topeka work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Middlebury (6%, 12 mi), Eden Township (6%, 2 mi), Goshen (5%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Topeka walkable?
Topeka is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.1 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Topeka without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Topeka, from the people who make the trip.
More of Topeka
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.