Daniel Steckel House · Photo: Shuvaev · CC BY-SA 3.0Bath has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Only 4% work in Bath; the top destination outside it is Bethlehem (9%, 7 miles). Employers in Bath report 540 jobs, and 1,494 of its residents work somewhere. The two grades for Bath are C+ 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
Work in Bath: the figures worth knowing
The four measures behind Bath’s grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bath is better than 41% of U.S. towns, #769 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Job access by car holds Bath’s grade up (ahead of 78% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (20.1%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bath could be anywhere from C− to A−.
The daily commute in and out of Bath
On a workday 1,441 residents head out to work, 53 work right here, and 487 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Bath on a workday afternoon, 33% 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 Bath work
Where Bath clocks in
9% of workers
7% 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 Bath
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bath, 2013 → 2023: 664 → 540. 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 Bath’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Bath: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bath workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,212 commuters (the 9% 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.
How many miles Bath commutes
About 15% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Bath
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bath is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns, #266 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Both inputs place Bath 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 1,339 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). 5.9% of Bath households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Bath’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bath next to U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,900: 2,786th of 4,882 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Wallace Township PA | 3,759 | $183K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Newtown PA | 2,257 | $166K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 71 | Churchill PA | 3,014 | $107K | 1.9% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,784 | Plainwell MI | 3,722 | $67K | 10.4% | 6.7% | 6% | C+ |
| 2,785 | Southwest Greensburg PA | 2,147 | $52K | 10.3% | 5.1% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,786 | Bath PA | 2,903 | $72K | 20.1% | 5.1% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,787 | Belmont Township IL | 2,362 | $73K | 14.6% | 2.0% | 12% | C+ |
| 2,788 | Toulon Township IL | 2,167 | $63K | 11.8% | 2.7% | 12% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,882 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Bath, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Bath and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Upper Nazareth Township (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bath workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | – | C+ | A− | 24 min | $72,391 |
| East Allen Township | under 3% | A− | C− | 26 min | $98,191 |
| Upper Nazareth Township | 2% | A+ | C | 25 min | $121,969 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bath’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 Bath: questions
What is the median household income in Bath?
$72,391 (±$11,846) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bath?
20.1%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bath?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bath work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bethlehem (9%, 7 mi), Allentown (7%, 10 mi), Hanover Township (4%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bath walkable?
Bath is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bath 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 Bath, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bath
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.