Most of Blades commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
Blades grades C− for jobs and income and C for walkability. There are 112 jobs in Blades, against 484 working residents. For 1% of workers, the job is at home, next to 15% for Delaware as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Blades: the gist
Blades is a place people come home to
There are 112 jobs based in Blades, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Blades has about 1,000 people in it, 27% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Few Blades workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 15% across Delaware. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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 484 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Blades gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Blades is better than 20% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Blades’ grade.
Unemployment (11.9%) is left out: Blades’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Blades could be anywhere from D to B−.
Who commutes out of Blades, and who commutes in
On a workday 477 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 105 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Blades on a workday afternoon, 27% 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.
The daily trip from Blades: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Blades workers work from home, vs 15% across Delaware. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 472 commuters (the 1% 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.
14% of working residents work in Seaford
Where Blades clocks in
14% 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.
The kinds of work in Blades
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Blades, 2013 → 2023: 297 → 112. 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 Blades’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Blades commutes
About 21% 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.
In Blades, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Blades is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.6% 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 476 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 65% 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). 8.6% of Blades households have no vehicle (Delaware 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Blades’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Blades is 4,015th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | St. Georges DE | 1,530 | $132K | 0.4% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 352 | Lincoln DE | 1,873 | $108K | 0.0% | 1.9% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 370 | Bellefonte DE | 1,313 | $91K | 5.5% | 4.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,013 | Oakland WI | 1,024 | $63K | 9.2% | 3.2% | 2% | C− |
| 4,014 | Van Vleck TX | 1,763 | $59K | 10.6% | 0.0% | 3% | C− |
| 4,015 | Blades DE | 1,372 | $57K | 13.0% | 11.9% | 1% | C− |
| 4,016 | Earlville IL | 1,590 | $64K | 16.5% | 5.8% | 8% | C− |
| 4,017 | Daisetta TX | 1,194 | $66K | 14.5% | 4.7% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Blades, the top three, the last and three more from Delaware.
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 Blades: questions
What is the median household income in Blades?
$56,875 (±$8,435) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $84,954 across Delaware and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Blades?
13.0%, against 10.4% across Delaware and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Blades?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Delaware and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Blades work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Seaford (14%, 2 mi), Georgetown (6%, 12 mi), Salisbury (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Blades walkable?
Blades is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Blades without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Blades, from the people who make the trip.
More of Blades
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.