Photo: Talk2dan · CC BY-SA 4.0Whitaker has 0.1 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
29 jobs are based in Whitaker for 570 working residents. Whitaker grades C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Hardly any stay in Whitaker for work; outside it, Pittsburgh is the main destination (32%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Whitaker in brief
Whitaker is a place people come home to
There are 29 jobs based in Whitaker, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Whitaker has about 580 people in it, 48% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Most Whitaker residents work close to home
69% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. Only 8% work more than 50 miles away. How far ↓
One in three of Whitaker works in Pittsburgh
184 working residents, 32%, have their main job in Pittsburgh, 5.5 miles away. That’s 32 times as many as work in Whitaker itself. 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; with 570 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Whitaker’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Whitaker is better than 39% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Whitaker’s grade up (ahead of 88% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (25.9%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (14.9%) is left out: Whitaker’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, Whitaker could be anywhere from C to B−.
Who works in Whitaker, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 565 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 24 people come in from elsewhere.
About 580 people are in Whitaker on a workday afternoon, 48% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Miles to work from Whitaker
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.
Where the trip to work from Whitaker ends
Where Whitaker clocks in
32% of workers
9% of workers
3% 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 Whitaker’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Whitaker, 2013 → 2023: 41 → 29. 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 Whitaker’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Whitaker, about 25 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Whitaker workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 476 commuters (the 12% 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.
Whitaker is more walkable than 84% 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 538 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 100% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 10.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 94% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 14.0% of Whitaker households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Whitaker’s commuters take a bus or train.
Whitaker places 1,717th of 3,771 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Rose Valley PA | 1,017 | $247K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,715 | Litchfield Township PA | 1,267 | $71K | 7.5% | 12.7% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,716 | Henderson NE | 1,097 | $83K | 10.3% | 0.7% | 12% | C+ |
| 1,717 | Whitaker PA | 1,123 | $63K | 25.9% | 14.9% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,718 | Cut and Shoot TX | 1,141 | $72K | 20.4% | 1.9% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,719 | Tusten NY | 1,436 | $76K | 6.4% | 9.8% | 11% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Whitaker, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
12% of Whitaker works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to West Mifflin (9%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Whitaker workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitaker | – | C+ | A− | 25 min | $63,194 |
| Munhall | 3% | C | A+ | 24 min | $52,517 |
| West Mifflin | 9% | B− | A | 26 min | $76,563 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Whitaker’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 Whitaker: questions
What is the median household income in Whitaker?
$63,194 (±$4,816) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Whitaker?
25.9%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Whitaker?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Whitaker work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pittsburgh (32%, 6 mi), West Mifflin (9%, 3 mi), Homestead (3%, 1 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Whitaker walkable?
Whitaker is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 13.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Whitaker without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. 100% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Whitaker, from the people who make the trip.
More of Whitaker
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.