Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0Avoca has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Only 3% work in Avoca; the top destination outside it is Scranton (11%, 6 miles). There are 406 jobs in Avoca, against 1,199 working residents. The two grades for Avoca are B for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Avoca and work: the main findings
Most Avoca residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Avoca empties out on a workday
About 1,800 people are in Avoca on a workday afternoon, 31% fewer than the 2,600 who live here: 1,200 head out to work and 370 come in. 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Avoca
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Avoca is better than 58% of U.S. towns, #606 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Job access by car holds Avoca’s grade up (ahead of 74% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($63,478, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Avoca could be anywhere from C to A.
Miles to work from Avoca
About 18% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Avoca
On a workday 1,160 residents head out to work, 39 work right here, and 367 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Avoca on a workday afternoon, 31% 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.
Where people from Avoca work
Where Avoca clocks in
11% of workers
8% 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.
What Avoca’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Avoca, 2013 → 2023: 406 → 406. 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 Avoca’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Avoca spends getting to work: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Avoca workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,165 commuters (the 10% who work from home are left out). Across Pennsylvania: 81% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
In Avoca, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Avoca is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #287 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Both inputs place Avoca 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 1,292 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). 4.5% of Avoca households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Avoca’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Avoca ranks: 1,734th of 4,868 U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Newtown PA | 2,257 | $166K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Churchill PA | 3,014 | $107K | 1.9% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Thornbury Township PA | 3,165 | $172K | 2.4% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,732 | Fairlawn VA | 2,488 | $67K | 4.9% | 3.7% | 3% | B |
| 1,733 | Davis Junction IL | 2,566 | $108K | 8.7% | 6.1% | 1% | B |
| 1,734 | Avoca PA | 2,551 | $63K | 6.8% | 4.4% | 3% | B |
| 1,735 | Sunrise Township MN | 2,160 | $111K | 5.7% | 5.1% | 1% | B |
| 1,736 | Elyria Township OH | 3,220 | $62K | 4.6% | 5.8% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,868 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Avoca, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Around Avoca: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Pittston Township (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Avoca workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avoca | – | B | A− | 22 min | $63,478 |
| Duryea | 3% | B− | C+ | 26 min | $62,462 |
| Dupont | under 3% | B | B | 16 min | $86,500 |
| Pittston Township | 5% | A− | B+ | 26 min | $68,702 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Avoca’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 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 Avoca: questions
What is the median household income in Avoca?
$63,478 (±$7,993) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Avoca?
6.8%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Avoca?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Avoca work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Scranton (11%, 6 mi), Wilkes-Barre (8%, 9 mi), Plains Township (6%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Avoca walkable?
Avoca is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Avoca without a car?
3% 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 Avoca, from the people who make the trip.
More of Avoca
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.