County Counts: 2010 Business Numbers

Population statistics for Indiana counties in 2010 don’t reveal many surprises. For those interested, we’ll list the top 10 below.

I came across some recent numbers, however, that included businesses, sales and employees by county. Among the items that jumped out: Elkhart, while sixth in population, number of businesses and employees, generated the third highest sales total.

Here’s the numbers; draw your own conclusions.

Top 10 in population:

1. Marion: 892,403

2. Lake: 501,248

3. Allen: 356,857

4. Hamilton: 280,425

5. St. Joseph: 271,159

6. Elkhart: 202,892

7. Vanderburgh: 176,122

8. Tippecanoe: 168,650

9. Porter: 165,244

10. Hendricks: 143,458

Top 10 in businesses (ranked by number of employees)

COUNTY                            BUSINESSES           EMPLOYEES              SALES

1. Marion                                33,788                     633,691             $157,929,646

2. Allen                                   12,540                     197,661              $48,525,593

3. Lake                                   15,207                     176,748              $37,617,188

4. St. Joseph                           9,146                     135,683              $24,793,763

5. Vanderburgh                       7,432                     131,769              $24,693,842

6. Elkhart                                  7,137                     122,835              $38,245,084

7. Hamilton                              9,350                     115,316              $24,953,277

8. Tippecanoe                         4,871                        88,321             $22,935,115

9. Monroe                                 4,608                        62,571             $11,051,280

10. Porter                                 5,362                        58,493              $15,312,321 

Chamber Names Indiana’s ‘Best Buy’ Schools

Chamber officials are traveling the state today (and tomorrow) recognizing the schools that warranted our "Best Buy" label this year. See below for a description of the award and this year’s honorees (and view the full report here):

For 2009, 135 public high schools were designated as a "best buy" for giving taxpayers the most value for their money.  Two methods determined this honor. A school was named a best buy if it had a quality index above the state median and revenues below the statewide median of $10,179 per student. The second method was by having a quality index ranking that was 20% higher than the school’s revenue ranking.

In addition, from the best buy group, 26 high schools were given the "honor roll" distinction for excelling academically despite having at-risk student demographics above the statewide median. For their exemplary efforts, the top five schools from the best buy and honor roll lists were then selected as "head of the class" members.

The 2009 "head of the class" selections are:

– Adams Central High School in Monroe (Adams County);
– Forest Park Jr.-Sr. High School in Ferdinand (Dubois County);
– North Central High School in Indianapolis (Marion County);
– Northwestern High School in Kokomo (Howard County);
– Plainfield High School (Hendricks County);
– Plymouth High School (Marshall County);
– Signature School in Evansville (Vanderburgh County).
– South Adams Jr.-Sr. High School in Berne (Adams County);
– Triton Jr.-Sr. High School in Bourbon (Marshall County); and
– Warsaw Community High School (Kosciusko County).

Safety Worth Celebrating

Safety is something that can easily be taken for granted – that is until something happens.

When an employee died on the job at Strick Corporation in 2002, the Monroe-based company knew change was needed. “The incident rate was almost a recordable one (to OSHA) each day” prior to that fatality, notes Cheryl Pike, plant nurse and safety coordinator.

Impacted by the death of a co-worker, employees started volunteering for the company’s safety programs. The company’s culture changed for the better. The transformation at Strick Corporation earned the company INSHARP (Indiana Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program) status in 2008.

Today, Strick was honored at the 2009 Governor’s Workplace Safety Awards for its overall safety program.

Joining Strick in earning awards at the Indiana Safety and Health Conference were:

  • Turner Construction Company of Indiana LLC in Indianapolis – education and outreach by a construction company award
  • Bayer Healthcare LLC, Product Supply/Diabetes Care facility in Mishawaka – education and outreach by a large company award
  • Futurex Industries Inc. in Bloomingdale – education and outreach by a medium company award
  • Monsanto Company, Windfall Soybean Production division in Remington – education and outreach by a small company award
  • ERMCO Inc. in Indianapolis – innovation by a specialty contractor award
  • Indianapolis Power & Light Company – innovation by a large company award
  • Emerson Industrial Automation, Emerson Power Transmission division in Monticello – innovation by a medium company award
  • DSM NeoResins+ in Frankfort – innovation by a small company award
  • Kimball Electronics and Advanced Rehabilitation, Inc. in Jasper – partnerships award
  • Cerrowire Inc. in Crothersville – small company safety award
  • Solid Platforms Inc. in Portage – specialty contractor safety award

The 2009 Governor’s Workplace Safety Awards are presented by the Indiana Department of Labor, on behalf of Gov. Mitch Daniels, the Central Indiana Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers and the Indiana Chamber.