A third of countians commute outside county
Twenty percent
of Hillsboro citizens
leave Marion County
for their jobs
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
One in five Hillsboro residents commutes to work outside of the county, according to figures recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In data collected in the 2002 Census, research found that 20.4 percent of workers living inside the Hillsboro city limits have to leave the county to get to their place of employment.
That's lower than the overall total for Marion County. Census figures show that nearly one in three county residents goes to another county for work — 32.1 percent.
In Marion, just 15.4 percent of the population leaves the county for work. But in Goessel, that number is quite a bit higher. There, nearly 66 percent of Goessel residents leave Marion County to work — a number perhaps explained by the proximity of Newton, which is only 12 miles away on K-15.
During each decade's census, the United States government collects information about the labor forces of each state, county, and town. That information includes how many people car pool, how many people leave the county for work, and how many walk to work or use public transportation.
It also includes the mean, or average, commute that citizens have each day.
For Hillsboro, the average commute for a worker is 12.8 minutes — which isn't enough to get a person outside Marion County lines. That is the shortest commute for any city in the county.
According to census figures, people living in Tampa have the longest commute, with an average of 27 minutes.
Here is the rundown for Marion County workers:
— Durham: 20.9 minute average commute time, 25 percent of residents working outside county
— Goessel: 19.2 minute average commute time, 65.9 percent of residents working outside county
— Hillsboro: 12.8 minute average commute time, 20.4 percent of residents working outside county
— Marion: 15.7 minute average commute time, 15.4 percent of residents working outside county
— Peabody: 21.2 minute average commute time, 54.7 percent of residents working outside county
