Centre Hall has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Centre Hall has 142 jobs for 510 working residents. The two grades for Centre Hall are B− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 7% of workers, next to 16% for Pennsylvania as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Centre Hall: the gist
Centre Hall is a place people come home to
There are 142 jobs based in Centre Hall, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Centre Hall has about 860 people in it, 30% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Centre Hall are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 26 across Pennsylvania. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Pennsylvania 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 510 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Centre Hall gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Centre Hall is better than 52% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Centre Hall’s grade up (8.3%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (12.5%) is left out: Centre Hall’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Centre Hall could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Who works in Centre Hall, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 503 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 135 people come in from elsewhere.
About 860 people are in Centre Hall on a workday afternoon, 30% 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.
The trip to work from Centre Hall: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Centre Hall workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 708 commuters (the 7% 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.
24% of working residents work in College Township
Where Centre Hall clocks in
24% of workers
10% 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 Centre Hall’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Centre Hall, 2013 → 2023: 249 → 142. 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 Centre Hall’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Centre Hall commutes less than 9 miles
About 19% 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.
Centre Hall is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Centre Hall is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.6% across Pennsylvania.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 764 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). 5.5% of Centre Hall households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Centre Hall’s commuters take a bus or train.
Centre Hall places 1,575th of 4,866 on jobs and income among 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Rose Valley PA | 1,017 | $247K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,573 | Blooming Grove Township IN | 1,034 | $95K | 6.7% | 14.1% | 0% | B− |
| 1,574 | Conrad IA | 1,086 | $73K | 5.2% | 1.3% | 26% | B− |
| 1,575 | Centre Hall PA | 1,225 | $81K | 8.3% | 12.5% | 1% | B− |
| 1,576 | Haven Township KS | 1,555 | $60K | 6.9% | 3.8% | 11% | B− |
| 1,577 | Ludington WI | 1,037 | $86K | 7.8% | 4.5% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Centre Hall, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
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 Centre Hall: questions
What is the median household income in Centre Hall?
$80,652 (±$18,301) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Centre Hall?
8.3%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Centre Hall?
18 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Centre Hall work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are College Township (24%, 7 mi), State College (10%, 10 mi), Potter Township (8%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Centre Hall walkable?
Centre Hall is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 11.2 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Centre Hall without a car?
0% 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 Centre Hall, from the people who make the trip.
More of Centre Hall
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.