Photo: Dough4872 · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Bellefonte works elsewhere
Working from home is the commute for 23% of workers, where Delaware as a whole has 15%. There are 209 jobs in Bellefonte, against 514 working residents. The two grades for Bellefonte are A for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bellefonte and work: the main findings
Fewer jobs are based in Bellefonte than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Bellefonte fell from 644 in 2013 to 209 in 2023, −68%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Most Bellefonte residents work close to home
62% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. Only 7% work more than 50 miles away. How far ↓
Home offices are common in Bellefonte
23% of Bellefonte workers work from home, against 15% across Delaware. Time on the road ↓
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 514 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Bellefonte earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Bellefonte is better than 87% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Bellefonte’s grade. It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
Unemployment (4.9%) is left out: Bellefonte’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, Bellefonte could be anywhere from B+ to A+.
In Bellefonte, services account for most jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bellefonte, 2013 → 2023: 644 → 209. 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 Bellefonte’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Bellefonte
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.
Time on the road from Bellefonte: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bellefonte workers work from home, vs 15% across Delaware. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 561 commuters (the 23% who work from home are left out). Across Delaware: 84% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How a workday changes Bellefonte
On a workday 509 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 204 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Bellefonte on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
13% of working residents work in Wilmington
Where Bellefonte clocks in
13% of workers
4% 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.
Bellefonte is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bellefonte is more walkable than 87% 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 4.9% across Delaware.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 727 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 7.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 89% 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). 2.9% of Bellefonte households have no vehicle (Delaware 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bellefonte’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Bellefonte is 328th among 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 77 | St. Georges DE | 1,530 | $132K | 0.4% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 326 | Waupun WI | 1,390 | $113K | 2.5% | 0.0% | 2% | A |
| 327 | North Puyallup WA | 1,653 | $83K | 4.5% | 0.0% | <1% | A |
| 328 | Bellefonte DE | 1,313 | $91K | 5.5% | 4.9% | 1% | A |
| 329 | Afton Township KS | 1,640 | $133K | 5.9% | 1.7% | 1% | A |
| 330 | Blue Ridge AL | 1,190 | $128K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 650 | Bethany Beach DE | 1,104 | $117K | 1.7% | 1.7% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 944 | Rehoboth Beach DE | 1,309 | $138K | 8.7% | 6.7% | 22% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Bellefonte, the top three, the last and three more from Delaware.
Around Bellefonte: the bordering towns
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bellefonte workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bellefonte | – | A | A | 21 min | $90,694 |
| Edgemoor | under 1% | C+ | A+ | 26 min | $59,424 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bellefonte’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 Bellefonte: questions
What is the median household income in Bellefonte?
$90,694 (±$13,517) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $84,954 across Delaware and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bellefonte?
5.5%, against 10.4% across Delaware and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bellefonte?
21 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Delaware and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bellefonte work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (13%, 3 mi), Philadelphia (4%, 26 mi), New Castle (3%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bellefonte walkable?
Bellefonte is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 16.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bellefonte without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 100% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bellefonte, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bellefonte
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.