Photo: Umrok · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Kingston earn less than those in 81% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Kingston itself; outside it, Wilkes-Barre draws the most (17%, 1 miles). 18.3% of residents are in poverty, where Pennsylvania as a whole has 11.7%. For jobs and income Kingston is better than 26% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Kingston in brief
Kingston trades workers with the towns around it
Kingston has about as many jobs (5,909) as working residents (5,518), but they are mostly different people: 4,958 residents leave for work each day while 5,349 people come in. Only 9% of the jobs in Kingston are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Kingston works one town over
27% of working residents work in a town that borders Kingston: Wilkes-Barre (17%), Plains Township (8%) and Forty Fort (2%). Next door ↓
Most Kingston residents work close to home
64% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Kingston than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Kingston fell from 8,821 in 2013 to 5,909 in 2023, −33%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Kingston draws workers from far and wide
The 5,909 jobs in Kingston are filled from a wide area. Kingston’s own residents hold 9% and the ten next-biggest home towns 30%; the other 61% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Kingston
Job access by car holds Kingston’s grade up (ahead of 73% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kingston could be anywhere from C− to B−.
A workday in Kingston: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 4,958 residents head out to work, 560 work right here, and 5,349 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.07 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.
The distance from Kingston to work
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.
What Kingston’s employers do
5,909 jobs are based in Kingston.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kingston, 2013 → 2023: 8,821 → 5,909. 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 Kingston’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting out of Kingston: the destinations
Where Kingston clocks in
17% 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.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Kingston
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kingston workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,561 commuters (the 13% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Kingston
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,399 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). 13.1% of Kingston households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Kingston’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Kingston ranks: 2,075th of 2,526 U.S. towns of 9,000 to 18,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Lower Moreland Township PA | 14,116 | $154K | 2.6% | 2.0% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Bethel Township PA | 9,774 | $177K | 1.8% | 2.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 41 | Skippack Township PA | 14,502 | $148K | 2.5% | 2.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,073 | Canton MS | 10,873 | $38K | 33.3% | 3.5% | 19% | C |
| 2,074 | Lincolnton NC | 12,465 | $46K | 22.7% | 3.8% | 14% | C |
| 2,075 | Kingston PA | 13,462 | $55K | 18.3% | 6.4% | 10% | C |
| 2,076 | Camden SC | 9,201 | $64K | 13.2% | 8.2% | 17% | C |
| 2,077 | Defiance OH | 17,009 | $61K | 14.7% | 5.5% | 33% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,526 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Kingston, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
The towns next door employ 27% of Kingston
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Kingston workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingston | – | C | A | 22 min | $55,347 |
| Wilkes-Barre | 17% | C− | A | 21 min | $48,515 |
| Edwardsville | under 2% | D | C+ | 19 min | $44,866 |
| Pringle | under 2% | — | — | 18 min | — |
| Forty Fort | 2% | C+ | B+ | 20 min | $74,432 |
| Plains Township | 8% | C+ | B | 20 min | $73,790 |
Same-state neighbors only. Pringle: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Wilkes-Barre. Darker towns draw more of Kingston’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 Kingston: questions
What is the median household income in Kingston?
$55,347 (±$8,660) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kingston?
18.3%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kingston?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kingston work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilkes-Barre (17%, 1 mi), Plains Township (8%, 4 mi), Hanover Township (5%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kingston walkable?
Kingston is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.3 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kingston without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kingston, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kingston
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.