Lower Marsh Creek Presbyterian Church · Photo: Smallbones · CC0Highland Township has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
131 jobs are based in Highland Township; 448 of its residents have a job. Highland Township grades A− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Measured by household income, Highland Township is ahead of 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Highland Township in brief
Highland Township’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Highland Township is better than 78% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Highland Township’s grade up (3.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 32% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Highland Township’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, Highland Township could be anywhere from B to A.
Highland Township by day and by night
On a workday 446 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 129 people come in from elsewhere.
About 700 people are in Highland Township 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.
7% of working residents work in Gettysburg
Where Highland Township clocks in
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.
In Highland Township, 50% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Highland Township, 2013 → 2023: 76 → 131. 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 Highland Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Highland Township, about 29 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Highland Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 407 commuters (the 16% 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 Highland Township commutes
About 24% 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.
Driving is how Highland Township gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Highland Township is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.6% across Pennsylvania, on an EPA index of 5.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 485 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). 2.5% of Highland Township households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Highland Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Highland Township next to U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400: 321st of 3,133 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Rose Valley PA | 1,017 | $247K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 319 | East Gull Lake MN | 1,184 | $123K | 3.6% | 2.7% | 4% | A− |
| 320 | Waldo Township OH | 1,125 | $90K | 4.5% | 0.6% | 2% | A− |
| 321 | Highland Township PA | 1,020 | $109K | 3.5% | 0.8% | <1% | A− |
| 322 | Woodlawn NC | 1,085 | $73K | 0.0% | 0.0% | <1% | A− |
| 323 | Crocker WA | 1,254 | $110K | 6.5% | 1.4% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Highland Township, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Next door to Highland Township
The biggest share goes to Cumberland Township (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Highland Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highland Township | – | A− | B− | 29 min | $108,958 |
| Cumberland Township | 3% | B | B | 24 min | $83,021 |
| Franklin Township | under 3% | B+ | C | 34 min | $100,475 |
| Hamiltonban Township | 3% | C+ | B | 42 min | $90,521 |
| Orrtanna | under 3% | — | — | 81 min | — |
| Freedom Township | under 3% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| Liberty Township | under 3% | B+ | D− | 38 min | $93,250 |
Same-state neighbors only. Orrtanna: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Freedom Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Highland Township’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 Highland Township: questions
What is the median household income in Highland Township?
$108,958 (±$15,921) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Highland Township?
3.5%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Highland Township?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Highland Township work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Gettysburg (7%, 5 mi), Frederick (5%, 27 mi), Hamiltonban Township (3%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Highland Township walkable?
Highland Township is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Highland Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Highland Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Highland Township
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.