Work & commute · Porter

Work & commute in Porter, MI

Most working residents leave Porter for work: only 2% work in town. The top destinations are Portage (11%), Kalamazoo (11%) and Antwerp (10%). Half commute less than 16 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2021 Census ACS commute times
Work in town
2%
20 of 1,052 working residents
Typical commute
16 mi
Half commute less than this, straight-line
Average commute time
25 min
One way, from the Census survey
Work from home
9%
of workers, from the Census survey
Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 1,032 Porter residents head out of town to work, 20 work right here, and 77 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Porter.

1,032live here, work elsewhere
20live and work here
77work here, live elsewhere
Leave for workStayCome in
The map

Where Porter goes to work

St. JosephKalamazooPortageDecaturParkPorterLawrencePaw PawKalamazooOshtemoMarcellusAntwerpTexasSchoolcraftComstockNewbergPrairie RondePortageKalamazooAntwerpPaw PawMarcellusOshtemoComstockTexasKalamazooSchoolcraftPorter
1
Portage12.6 mi away
11%113
2
Kalamazoo15.8 mi away
11%112
3
Antwerp5.8 mi away
10%101
4
Paw Paw8.5 mi away
6%68
5
Marcellus6.5 mi away
3%36
6
Oshtemo12.9 mi away
3%33
7
Comstock21.2 mi away
3%29
8
Texas8.3 mi away
3%28
9
Kalamazoo16.7 mi away
3%27
10
Schoolcraft11.7 mi away
2%26
Everywhere elseother towns and states
46%479

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far Porter commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

26%Under 10 mi
43%10–24 mi
11%25–50 mi
20%Over 50 mi
Job hub or commuter town?

Porter is a commuter town

0.09jobs per working resident
A commuter town

0.09 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.

The jobs

What the jobs in Porter are

97 jobs are based in Porter. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Porter’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Porter

97 jobs
Goods (factories, building, farms)66%
Trade, transport & utilities1%
Services (health, schools, offices…)33%
$1,250 a month or less26%
$1,251–$3,333 a month35%
Over $3,333 a month39%

Jobs Porter residents hold

1,052 working residents
Goods (factories, building, farms)28%
Trade, transport & utilities18%
Services (health, schools, offices…)54%
$1,250 a month or less15%
$1,251–$3,333 a month27%
Over $3,333 a month58%
+45%

Jobs based in Porter, 2011 → 2021: 67 → 97. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.
Where the employer saysA job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.
Two surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2021. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

The coffee’s on

Where to, neighbor?

You’re in Porter, MIVan Buren CountyView boundary

Nearby

All towns & citiesExplore the map
Loading boundary…

Porter is your selected town. The feed includes posts assigned to this town, not a distance radius or ZIP code.

Neighborhoods narrow the feed further, while townwide announcements, events, and issues remain visible.

Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/15 · 2025-01-01