Photo: Dennisyerger84 · CC BY-SA 3.0Earning a living in Valparaiso
About one in four stay in Valparaiso for work; outside it, Merrillville is the main destination (5%, 14 miles). For jobs and income Valparaiso is better than 51% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (A). Working residents average 25 minutes each way, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Valparaiso
Valparaiso is where the jobs are
Valparaiso has 23,446 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Valparaiso draws workers from far and wide
The 23,446 jobs in Valparaiso are filled from a wide area. Valparaiso’s own residents hold 19% and the ten next-biggest home towns 26%; the other 55% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
How Valparaiso earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Valparaiso’s grade up (ahead of 72% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.9%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Valparaiso could be anywhere from C+ to B.
The daily flow of workers through Valparaiso
On a workday 10,463 residents head out to work, 4,468 work right here, and 18,978 people come in from elsewhere.
About 44,000 people are in Valparaiso on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Commuting in to Valparaiso: where workers come from
Where Valparaiso clocks in
5% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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 kinds of work in Valparaiso
23,446 jobs are based in Valparaiso.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Valparaiso, 2013 → 2023: 23,393 → 23,446. 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 Valparaiso’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 25 minutes in Valparaiso
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Valparaiso workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 15,442 commuters (the 10% 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 far Valparaiso’s workers travel
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Valparaiso
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 17,233 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.7% of Valparaiso households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Valparaiso’s commuters take a bus or train.
Valparaiso places 831st of 1,194 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 25,000 to 47,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Zionsville IN | 33,624 | $172K | 3.1% | 2.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 59 | Perry Township IN | 39,325 | $112K | 3.4% | 1.3% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 185 | Brownsburg IN | 34,089 | $102K | 7.5% | 1.6% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 829 | Bourbonnais Township IL | 38,541 | $76K | 10.0% | 5.5% | 26% | B− |
| 830 | Superior WI | 26,397 | $64K | 13.3% | 3.2% | 41% | B− |
| 831 | Valparaiso IN | 35,177 | $70K | 14.9% | 3.6% | 30% | B− |
| 832 | Eustis FL | 25,483 | $65K | 9.6% | 3.8% | 8% | B− |
| 833 | Kearney NE | 34,782 | $70K | 12.4% | 2.9% | 61% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,194 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Valparaiso, 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 Valparaiso: questions
What is the median household income in Valparaiso?
$69,872 (±$3,502) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Valparaiso?
14.9%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Valparaiso?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Valparaiso work?
30% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Merrillville (5%, 14 mi), Portage (4%, 10 mi), Chicago (4%, 41 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Valparaiso walkable?
Valparaiso is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.1 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Valparaiso without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Valparaiso, from the people who make the trip.
More of Valparaiso
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.