Church Hill Farm · Photo: Smallbones · CC0Peters Township has lower unemployment (1.5%) than 90% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Peters Township B−; getting around on foot earns it C+. Working from home is the commute for 24% of workers, against 16% across Pennsylvania. About one in ten work in Peters Township itself; outside it, Mercersburg draws the most (10%, 3 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Peters Township and work: the main findings
Peters Township makes and builds things
53% of the jobs based in Peters Township are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Peters Township residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 28%. The jobs ↓
Home offices are common in Peters Township
24% of Peters Township workers work from home, against 16% across Pennsylvania. 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.
Inside Peters Township’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Peters Township is better than 50% of U.S. towns, #690 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Unemployment holds Peters Township’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Peters Township could be anywhere from C to A−.
Factories, building and farms: 53% of the jobs in Peters Township
923 jobs are based in Peters Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Peters Township, 2013 → 2023: 776 → 923. 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 Peters Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 30 minutes each way, longer than most of Pennsylvania
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Peters Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,918 commuters (the 24% 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.
Who commutes out of Peters Township, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,820 residents head out to work, 175 work right here, and 748 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,400 people are in Peters Township on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
0.46 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.
The places Peters Township commutes to
Where Peters Township clocks in
10% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Peters Township
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.
Most trips from Peters Township start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Peters Township is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns, #670 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.6% across Pennsylvania, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,510 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). 3.9% of Peters Township households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Peters Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 3,100 to 6,000, Peters Township ranks 2,106th of 4,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Wallace Township PA | 3,759 | $183K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Edgmont Township PA | 4,706 | $137K | 2.4% | 1.1% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Pocopson Township PA | 4,480 | $230K | 1.3% | 2.2% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,104 | District Heights MD | 5,938 | $87K | 17.6% | 6.8% | <1% | B− |
| 2,105 | Orangeville Township MI | 3,497 | $83K | 6.9% | 5.7% | 4% | B− |
| 2,106 | Peters Township PA | 4,473 | $77K | 12.4% | 1.5% | 9% | B− |
| 2,107 | Codorus Township PA | 4,014 | $102K | 9.5% | 7.2% | 5% | B− |
| 2,108 | Jefferson IA | 4,150 | $59K | 7.3% | 1.1% | 37% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,000 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Peters Township, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Peters Township and its neighbors: 22% work next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Peters Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peters Township | – | B− | C+ | 30 min | $76,829 |
| Montgomery Township | 2% | B− | B− | 37 min | $98,640 |
| Antrim Township | 7% | A− | D | 23 min | $94,205 |
| Ayr Township | 3% | C | C | 28 min | $61,818 |
| Mercersburg | 10% | C | A− | 30 min | $66,114 |
| Todd Township | under 2% | C+ | C− | 23 min | $74,485 |
| Warren Township | under 2% | — | — | 39 min | — |
| St. Thomas Township | under 2% | C+ | C | 25 min | $73,642 |
| Metal Township | under 2% | C+ | B− | 29 min | $79,750 |
Same-state neighbors only. Warren Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Mercersburg. Darker towns draw more of Peters 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 Peters Township: questions
What is the median household income in Peters Township?
$76,829 (±$15,210) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Peters Township?
12.4%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Peters Township?
30 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Peters Township work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mercersburg (10%, 3 mi), Chambersburg (10%, 13 mi), Antrim Township (7%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Peters Township walkable?
Peters Township is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Peters Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Peters Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Peters 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.