Photo: Jakec · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Sunbury are lower than in 87% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Sunbury is better than 24% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (A). The poverty rate is 18.7%; Pennsylvania has 11.7%. About one in ten stay in Sunbury for work; outside it, Monroe Township is the main destination (8%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Sunbury
Sunbury trades workers with the towns around it
Sunbury has about as many jobs (3,744) as working residents (4,091), but they are mostly different people: 3,623 residents leave for work each day while 3,276 people come in. Only 13% of the jobs in Sunbury are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
No single place dominates Sunbury’s commute
The biggest draw, Monroe Township, gets only 8% of working residents, and 55% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Sunbury residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
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.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Sunbury
Job access by car holds Sunbury’s grade up (ahead of 57% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($51,028, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sunbury could be anywhere from D to B−.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 3,623 residents head out to work, 468 work right here, and 3,276 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 (0.92 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.
Where Sunbury goes to work
Where Sunbury clocks in
8% of workers
5% of workers
5% 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.
What Sunbury’s employers do
3,744 jobs are based in Sunbury.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sunbury, 2013 → 2023: 4,774 → 3,744. 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 Sunbury’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Sunbury: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sunbury workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,066 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.
How many miles Sunbury commutes
About 23% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Sunbury
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,445 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). 16.1% of Sunbury households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Sunbury’s commuters take a bus or train.
Sunbury places 2,314th of 2,831 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 6,600 to 12,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | West Vincent Township PA | 6,885 | $203K | 1.4% | 0.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Bethel Township PA | 9,774 | $177K | 1.8% | 2.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Upper Nazareth Township PA | 8,521 | $122K | 1.2% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,312 | Corning CA | 8,260 | $57K | 17.9% | 2.8% | 15% | C− |
| 2,313 | Pittston PA | 7,715 | $50K | 20.0% | 5.6% | 6% | C− |
| 2,314 | Sunbury PA | 9,495 | $51K | 18.7% | 4.8% | 11% | C− |
| 2,315 | Porter Township OH | 9,437 | $59K | 13.6% | 4.7% | 12% | C− |
| 2,316 | Cambridge OH | 10,055 | $43K | 27.9% | 3.0% | 34% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,831 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Sunbury, 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 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 Sunbury: questions
What is the median household income in Sunbury?
$51,028 (±$5,850) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sunbury?
18.7%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sunbury?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sunbury work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Monroe Township (8%, 4 mi), Point Township (5%, 5 mi), Mahoning Township (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sunbury walkable?
Sunbury is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.2 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sunbury without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sunbury, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sunbury
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.