About half of Mount Oliver’s working residents commute to Pittsburgh
Jobs & income C+: better than 38% of U.S. towns on income, poverty, unemployment and job access · #793 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania.
Walkability A+: among the most walkable U.S. towns · #14 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania.
Household incomes here are lower than in 85% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 24 minutes each way (Pennsylvania 26, U.S. 26). Only 1% work in Mount Oliver; the top destination outside it is Pittsburgh (45%, 2 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Mount Oliver
Nearly half of Mount Oliver works in Pittsburgh
609 working residents, 45%, have their main job in Pittsburgh, 2 miles away. That’s 45 times as many as work in Mount Oliver itself. The commute map ↓
Most Mount Oliver residents work close to home
69% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Mount Oliver workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Mount Oliver’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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.
What’s behind Mount Oliver’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Mount Oliver is better than 38% of U.S. towns, #793 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Job access by car holds Mount Oliver’s grade up (ahead of 93% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($52,297, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mount Oliver could be anywhere from C− to A.
45% of working residents work in Pittsburgh
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Mount Oliver clocks in
45% of workers
2% of workers
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Half of Mount Oliver commutes less than 5 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
What the 446 jobs in Mount Oliver are
446 jobs are based in Mount Oliver. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Mount Oliver’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Oliver, 2013 → 2023: 270 → 446. 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.
Mount Oliver quiets down on a workday
On a workday 1,351 residents head out to work, 17 work right here, and 429 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Mount Oliver on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
0.33 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 2023, primary jobs.
About 24 minutes each way, quicker than most of Pennsylvania
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Oliver workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,449 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.
Mount Oliver is among the most walkable U.S. towns
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Oliver is among the most walkable U.S. towns, #14 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Both inputs place Mount Oliver 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 1,534 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, 80% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 15.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 97% 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). 35.0% of Mount Oliver households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 18% of Mount Oliver’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mount Oliver is 2,666th of 4,316 U.S. towns of 2,300 to 4,300 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Mount Oliver, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Wallace Township PA | 3,759 | $183K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | West Pikeland Township PA | 4,045 | $226K | 0.9% | 2.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Trappe PA | 4,061 | $127K | 4.5% | 1.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,664 | Pelican WI | 2,840 | $62K | 11.5% | 2.4% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,665 | Reedsport OR | 4,271 | $54K | 9.3% | 0.9% | 29% | C+ |
| 2,666 | Mount Oliver PA | 3,222 | $52K | 15.1% | 5.5% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,667 | Veteran NY | 3,179 | $65K | 7.5% | 5.6% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,668 | Otsego NY | 3,621 | $73K | 6.9% | 5.6% | 40% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,316 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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.
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 Mount Oliver: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Oliver?
$52,297 (±$11,850) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Oliver?
15.1%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Oliver?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Oliver work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pittsburgh (45%, 2 mi), Green Tree (2%, 4 mi), Monroeville (2%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Oliver walkable?
Mount Oliver is among the most walkable U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 16.0 out of 20, and 19% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Oliver without a car?
18% of commuters take transit and 35% of households have no car. 80% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Oliver, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Oliver
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.