Photo: Hshuvaeva · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Tamaqua earn less than those in 92% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Tamaqua; the top destination outside it is Rush Township (7%, 4 miles). Below the poverty line: 26.7% of residents, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania. For jobs and income Tamaqua is better than 12% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Tamaqua and work: the main findings
What’s behind Tamaqua’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Tamaqua’s grade up (ahead of 48% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Tamaqua could be anywhere from D to C.
Where people from Tamaqua work
Where Tamaqua clocks in
7% of workers
4% 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 daily commute in and out of Tamaqua
On a workday 2,558 residents head out to work, 245 work right here, and 1,037 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,400 people are in Tamaqua on a workday afternoon, 22% 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 2024, primary jobs.
What Tamaqua’s employers do
1,282 jobs are based in Tamaqua.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tamaqua, 2014 → 2024: 1,664 → 1,282. 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 Tamaqua’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Tamaqua: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tamaqua workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,785 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 Tamaqua commutes less than 17 miles
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.
Tamaqua is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.6% across Pennsylvania, on an EPA index of 8.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,076 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). 12.1% of Tamaqua households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Tamaqua’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Tamaqua sits among U.S. towns of 4,900 to 9,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | West Vincent Township PA | 6,885 | $203K | 1.4% | 0.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 63 | Upper Nazareth Township PA | 8,521 | $122K | 1.2% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 77 | London Grove Township PA | 9,047 | $176K | 1.8% | 0.3% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,905 | Alfred NY | 6,217 | $42K | 36.7% | 16.1% | 24% | D |
| 2,906 | Rochester IN | 6,132 | $57K | 18.1% | 7.7% | 29% | D |
| 2,907 | Tamaqua PA | 6,929 | $46K | 26.7% | 6.4% | 9% | D |
| 2,908 | Chester SC | 5,324 | $46K | 19.4% | 7.6% | 8% | D |
| 2,909 | Milan TN | 8,367 | $44K | 21.3% | 6.4% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,167 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Tamaqua, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Tamaqua and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to West Penn Township (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Tamaqua workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamaqua | – | D | A | 25 min | $46,176 |
| Walker Township | 1% | B+ | B | 22 min | $88,571 |
| Schuylkill Township | under 2% | C+ | C | 33 min | $71,500 |
| Coaldale | under 2% | D | D | 31 min | $59,250 |
| West Penn Township | 4% | C+ | B | 32 min | $71,977 |
| Summit Hill | under 2% | D | C+ | 38 min | $65,268 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Tamaqua’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 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 Tamaqua: questions
What is the median household income in Tamaqua?
$46,176 (±$10,292) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tamaqua?
26.7%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tamaqua?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tamaqua work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rush Township (7%, 4 mi), Hazle Township (5%, 12 mi), West Penn Township (4%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Tamaqua walkable?
Tamaqua is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tamaqua without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tamaqua, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tamaqua
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.