Photo: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Gettysburg have lower incomes than those in 68% of U.S. towns
4.8% of residents live below the poverty line, against 11.9% across South Dakota. The two grades for Gettysburg are C for jobs and income and A for walkability. About one in three work in Gettysburg; the top destination outside it is Hoven (8%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Gettysburg apart on work
Gettysburg’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Gettysburg is better than 34% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Gettysburg’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.0%) is left out: Gettysburg’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, Gettysburg could be anywhere from C− to B−.
The trip to work from Gettysburg: about 13 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gettysburg workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 642 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across South Dakota: 85% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who leaves Gettysburg for work, and who comes in
On a workday 251 residents head out to work, 109 work right here, and 299 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 (1.13 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.
Out of Gettysburg to work: where people go
Where Gettysburg clocks in
8% of workers
6% 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.
What the 408 jobs in Gettysburg are
408 jobs are based in Gettysburg.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gettysburg, 2013 → 2023: 475 → 408. 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 Gettysburg’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Gettysburg, by distance
About 28% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Gettysburg
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gettysburg is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Gettysburg near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 662 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). 3.5% of Gettysburg households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gettysburg’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Gettysburg is 1,588th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 82 | Wall Lake Township SD | 1,210 | $129K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 102 | Jefferson Township SD | 1,207 | $196K | 2.0% | 3.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 198 | Baltic SD | 1,344 | $108K | 1.2% | 2.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,586 | Watterson Park KY | 1,031 | $40K | 17.2% | 15.2% | 5% | C |
| 1,587 | Truesdale MO | 1,054 | $59K | 10.9% | 3.9% | 8% | C |
| 1,588 | Gettysburg SD | 1,049 | $64K | 4.8% | 2.0% | 30% | C |
| 1,589 | Galveston IN | 1,273 | $57K | 10.6% | 4.3% | 2% | C |
| 1,590 | Fort Ripley Township MN | 1,081 | $75K | 11.2% | 2.4% | <1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Gettysburg, the top three, the last and three more from South Dakota.
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 Gettysburg: questions
What is the median household income in Gettysburg?
$63,929 (±$17,988) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gettysburg?
4.8%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gettysburg?
13 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gettysburg work?
30% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hoven (8%, 18 mi), Pierre (6%, 47 mi), Rapid City (4%, 173 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gettysburg walkable?
Gettysburg is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.5 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gettysburg without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gettysburg, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gettysburg
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.