Portage Historic District · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainPortage has lower household incomes than 92% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 23.2% of residents, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania. The two grades for Portage are C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Only 7% stay in Portage for work; outside it, Johnstown is the main destination (7%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Why Portage gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Portage is better than 16% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Portage’s grade up (ahead of 45% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($45,556, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Portage could be anywhere from D to C+.
In and out of Portage on a workday
On a workday 852 residents head out to work, 69 work right here, and 348 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Portage on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer than live here.
0.45 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.
The places Portage commutes to
Where Portage clocks in
7% of workers
7% of workers
7% 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 kinds of work in Portage
417 jobs are based in Portage.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Portage, 2014 → 2024: 390 → 417. 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 Portage’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 24 minutes each way for Portage’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Portage workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 878 commuters (the 9% 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.
Half of Portage commutes less than 13 miles
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Portage is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Portage is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.6% across Pennsylvania.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 964 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). 14.5% of Portage households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Portage’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Portage is 4,437th among 5,552 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Newtown PA | 2,257 | $166K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 7% | A+ |
| 30 | Edgeworth PA | 1,611 | $203K | 3.0% | 3.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Churchill PA | 3,014 | $107K | 1.9% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,435 | Howard City MI | 1,923 | $55K | 23.9% | 1.8% | 4% | C− |
| 4,436 | Baldwyn MS | 3,104 | $44K | 21.8% | 5.0% | 9% | C− |
| 4,437 | Portage PA | 2,344 | $46K | 23.2% | 5.0% | 7% | C− |
| 4,438 | Johnsburg NY | 2,132 | $61K | 10.5% | 3.6% | 29% | C− |
| 4,439 | Parks Township PA | 2,388 | $67K | 24.3% | 9.0% | 6% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,552 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Portage, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
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 Portage: questions
What is the median household income in Portage?
$45,556 (±$6,410) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Portage?
23.2%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Portage?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Portage work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Johnstown (7%, 14 mi), Portage Township (7%, 1 mi), Richland Township (7%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Portage walkable?
Portage is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Portage without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Portage, from the people who make the trip.
More of Portage
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.