Photo: Nicholas · CC BY 2.0Making a living in Porter Township
Jobs and income earn Porter Township C+; getting around on foot earns it B. At home: 8% of workers have no commute at all (Pennsylvania 16%). Only 5% stay in Porter Township for work; outside it, Lamar Township is the main destination (8%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Porter Township apart
The better-paid jobs are outside Porter Township
60% of Porter Township residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 42% of the jobs based in Porter Township pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 95% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Porter Township makes and builds things
35% of the jobs based in Porter Township are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Porter Township residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 28%. 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; with 572 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Porter Township: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Porter Township is better than 44% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Porter Township’s grade up (8.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Porter 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, Porter Township could be anywhere from C to B.
Making and building: 35% of jobs based in Porter Township
505 jobs are based in Porter Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Porter Township, 2013 → 2023: 526 → 505. 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 Porter Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Porter Township, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 542 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 475 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 (0.88 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 towns that employ Porter Township’s residents
Where Porter Township clocks in
7% of workers
6% 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.
About 24 minutes to work from Porter Township
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Porter Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 663 commuters (the 8% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Porter Township
About 25% 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.
Few in Porter Township walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Porter Township is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.6% across Pennsylvania, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 721 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). 6.6% of Porter Township households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Porter Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Porter Township is 2,273rd of 5,397 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Edgeworth PA | 1,611 | $203K | 3.0% | 3.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,271 | Moundridge KS | 1,939 | $68K | 8.9% | 2.6% | 19% | C+ |
| 2,272 | Burlingame Township KS | 1,703 | $64K | 6.5% | 6.8% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,273 | Porter Township PA | 1,503 | $73K | 8.6% | 1.3% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,274 | Albany LA | 1,244 | $47K | 6.8% | 2.2% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,275 | Nescopeck PA | 1,511 | $63K | 9.1% | 4.3% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,397 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Porter Township, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Porter Township and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Porter Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porter Township | – | C+ | B | 24 min | $73,100 |
| Logan Township | under 3% | — | — | 33 min | — |
| Beech Creek Township | under 3% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| Liberty Township | under 3% | B | D | 37 min | $75,766 |
| Lamar Township | 8% | B | C | 23 min | $92,188 |
| Marion Township | under 3% | C+ | C | 28 min | $67,405 |
Same-state neighbors only. Logan Township and Beech Creek Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Lamar Township. Darker towns draw more of Porter 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 Porter Township: questions
What is the median household income in Porter Township?
$73,100 (±$8,136) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Porter Township?
8.6%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Porter Township?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Porter Township work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lamar Township (8%, 5 mi), College Township (7%, 22 mi), Lock Haven (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Porter Township walkable?
Porter Township is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Porter Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Porter Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Porter 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.