Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHousehold incomes in Cresson trail those of 80% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 10.6% of residents, next to 11.7% for Pennsylvania as a whole. Cresson grades C for jobs and income and A for walkability. Home is the office for 6% of workers, where Pennsylvania as a whole has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cresson at work: what stands out
Many jobs in Cresson pay little
28% of the jobs based in Cresson pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Cresson are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 26 across Pennsylvania. That’s about 38 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 568 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Cresson earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Cresson is better than 33% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Cresson’s grade up (ahead of 49% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($55,850, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (7.0%) is left out: Cresson’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, Cresson could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Inside Cresson’s 759 jobs
759 jobs are based in Cresson.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cresson, 2013 → 2023: 884 → 759. 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 Cresson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 21 minutes from Cresson
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cresson workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 680 commuters (the 6% 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 a workday changes Cresson
On a workday 529 residents head out to work, 39 work right here, and 720 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Cresson on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.34 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
14% of working residents work in Altoona
Where Cresson clocks in
14% of workers
7% of workers
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.
How far Cresson goes to work
About 23% 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.
In Cresson, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cresson is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Cresson 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 724 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). 8.5% of Cresson households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cresson’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cresson next to U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000: 3,385th of 6,308 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Rose Valley PA | 1,017 | $247K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,383 | Rockdale Township PA | 1,356 | $71K | 10.4% | 4.1% | <1% | C |
| 3,384 | Egg Harbor WI | 1,562 | $75K | 8.9% | 2.0% | 6% | C |
| 3,385 | Cresson PA | 1,465 | $56K | 10.6% | 7.0% | 7% | C |
| 3,386 | New Johnsonville TN | 1,849 | $79K | 10.9% | 3.6% | 14% | C |
| 3,387 | Pittsford Township MI | 1,536 | $71K | 9.1% | 1.2% | 4% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Cresson, 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 Cresson: questions
What is the median household income in Cresson?
$55,850 (±$12,545) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cresson?
10.6%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cresson?
21 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cresson work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Altoona (14%, 10 mi), Cresson Township (7%, 1 mi), Richland Township (5%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cresson walkable?
Cresson is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.8 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cresson without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cresson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cresson
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.