Photo: Nicholas from Pennsylvania, USA · CC BY 2.0Smethport has lower household incomes than 73% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 4% of workers, next to 16% for Pennsylvania as a whole. 19.2% of residents live below the poverty line, where Pennsylvania as a whole has 11.7%. Smethport grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Smethport
Commutes from Smethport are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 26 across Pennsylvania. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Pennsylvania worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Smethport workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 16% across Pennsylvania. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 543 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Smethport
On income, poverty and job access, Smethport is better than 7% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Smethport’s grade up ($60,455, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 7% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (6.8%) is left out: Smethport’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, Smethport could be anywhere from D− to C.
Each way, about 16 minutes from Smethport
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Smethport workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 485 commuters (the 4% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Smethport
On a workday 428 residents head out to work, 115 work right here, and 677 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Smethport on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.46 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
10% of working residents work in Keating Township
Where Smethport clocks in
10% of workers
9% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Smethport
792 jobs are based in Smethport.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Smethport, 2014 → 2024: 921 → 792. 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 Smethport’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Smethport
About 21% 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.
Driving is how Smethport gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Smethport is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 14.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.6% across Pennsylvania, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 506 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). 18.4% of Smethport households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Smethport’s commuters take a bus or train.
Smethport is 4,670th of 5,400 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,800 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 17% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Rose Valley PA | 1,017 | $247K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,668 | Wakefield MI | 1,689 | $56K | 15.0% | 4.1% | 18% | D |
| 4,669 | Kingston OH | 1,236 | $40K | 26.3% | 2.5% | 2% | D |
| 4,670 | Smethport PA | 1,359 | $60K | 19.2% | 6.8% | 21% | D |
| 4,671 | Bovina TX | 1,677 | $49K | 16.4% | 1.7% | 4% | D |
| 4,672 | Frederic WI | 1,133 | $53K | 16.0% | 1.6% | 10% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Smethport, 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 Smethport: questions
What is the median household income in Smethport?
$60,455 (±$16,495) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Smethport?
19.2%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Smethport?
16 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Smethport work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Keating Township (10%, 3 mi), Bradford (9%, 15 mi), Olean (6%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Smethport walkable?
Smethport is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Smethport without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Smethport, from the people who make the trip.
More of Smethport
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.