Photo: NChanq at English Wikipedia · CC BY 3.0About half of Forest Hills’ working residents commute to Pittsburgh
For 28% of workers, the job is at home (Pennsylvania 16%). The two grades for Forest Hills are B+ for jobs and income and A+ for walkability. Only 2% work in Forest Hills itself; outside it, Pittsburgh draws the most (47%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Forest Hills and work: the main findings
Nearly half of Forest Hills works in Pittsburgh
1,383 working residents, 47%, have their main job in Pittsburgh, 6.4 miles away. That’s 24 times as many as work in Forest Hills itself. The commute map ↓
Most Forest Hills residents work close to home
73% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. Only 7% work more than 50 miles away. How far ↓
Home offices are common in Forest Hills
28% of Forest Hills workers work from home, against 16% across Pennsylvania. Time on the road ↓
Short distances, slow trips
Half of Forest Hills’ working residents have a job less than 7 miles away, yet the average commute still takes 28 minutes, longer than the Pennsylvania average of 26. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Inside Forest Hills’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Forest Hills is better than 72% of U.S. towns, #441 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Job access by car holds Forest Hills’ grade up (ahead of 90% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (7.5%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Forest Hills could be anywhere from B to A.
The towns that employ Forest Hills’ residents
Where Forest Hills clocks in
47% of workers
4% of workers
2% 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 commute from Forest Hills, by distance
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
A commute of about 28 minutes in Forest Hills
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forest Hills workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,513 commuters (the 28% 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 people are in Forest Hills by day
On a workday 2,905 residents head out to work, 50 work right here, and 1,994 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,200 people are in Forest Hills on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.69 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
What the 2,044 jobs in Forest Hills are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forest Hills, 2014 → 2024: 2,309 → 2,044. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Forest Hills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Forest Hills is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,496 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 36% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 12.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 95% 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). 7.0% of Forest Hills households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 9% of Forest Hills’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Forest Hills ranks: 1,096th of 3,370 U.S. towns of 4,300 to 8,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | West Vincent Township PA | 6,885 | $203K | 1.4% | 0.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Edgmont Township PA | 4,706 | $137K | 2.4% | 1.1% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Pocopson Township PA | 4,480 | $230K | 1.3% | 2.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,094 | Aptos CA | 6,404 | $134K | 5.9% | 5.4% | 9% | B+ |
| 1,095 | Chisago City MN | 5,955 | $102K | 3.4% | 7.5% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,096 | Forest Hills PA | 6,116 | $90K | 4.3% | 7.5% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,097 | Tuscola IL | 4,668 | $78K | 7.1% | 1.1% | 15% | B+ |
| 1,098 | Ray Township IN | 4,432 | $90K | 9.1% | 1.1% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,370 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Forest Hills, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Around Forest Hills: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Churchill (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Forest Hills workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Hills | – | B+ | A+ | 28 min | $89,688 |
| Braddock Hills | under 2% | C+ | A | 21 min | $39,981 |
| Wilkins Township | under 2% | B− | A− | 29 min | $65,625 |
| Churchill | 1% | A+ | B+ | 25 min | $106,964 |
| North Braddock | under 2% | D | A+ | 31 min | $34,564 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Forest Hills’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 2024, 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 Forest Hills: questions
What is the median household income in Forest Hills?
$89,688 (±$6,272) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forest Hills?
4.3%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forest Hills?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 28% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forest Hills work?
2% work in town.
Is Forest Hills walkable?
Forest Hills is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.4 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Forest Hills without a car?
9% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 36% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Forest Hills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forest Hills
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.