Photo: Vincenttheuser · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Claymont commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Claymont B+; getting around on foot earns it A. 2,099 jobs are based in Claymont; 4,134 of its residents have a job. Only 3% stay in Claymont for work; outside it, Wilmington is the main destination (12%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What’s behind Claymont’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Claymont is better than 66% of U.S. towns, #17 of 37 in Delaware. Job access by car holds Claymont’s grade up (ahead of 78% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (10.0%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Claymont could be anywhere from C+ to A.
A workday in Claymont: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 3,994 residents head out to work, 140 work right here, and 1,959 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,800 people are in Claymont 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.
Where Claymont’s working residents head each day
Where Claymont clocks in
12% of workers
5% 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.
What Claymont’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Claymont, 2013 → 2023: 1,970 → 2,099. 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 Claymont’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Claymont’s commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Claymont workers work from home, vs 15% across Delaware. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,380 commuters (the 16% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Claymont
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.
Claymont is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Claymont is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #11 of 37 in Delaware. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 4.8% 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 5,233 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 90% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 37% 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). 5.9% of Claymont households have no vehicle (Delaware 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Claymont’s commuters take a bus or train.
Claymont is 1,254th of 2,878 U.S. towns of 6,200 to 11,900 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Pike Creek DE | 7,129 | $140K | 1.3% | 0.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 289 | North Star DE | 7,834 | $151K | 3.5% | 3.1% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,100 | Wilmington Manor DE | 8,214 | $78K | 11.6% | 2.7% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,252 | Ranson corporation WV | 6,853 | $90K | 12.0% | 2.5% | 11% | B+ |
| 1,253 | Conewago Township PA | 8,075 | $89K | 4.6% | 5.4% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,254 | Claymont DE | 8,786 | $75K | 10.0% | 3.2% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,255 | Saline MI | 9,001 | $88K | 5.8% | 6.3% | 11% | B+ |
| 1,256 | Belle Isle FL | 7,688 | $105K | 11.6% | 5.5% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Claymont, 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 Claymont: questions
What is the median household income in Claymont?
$74,712 (±$13,583) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $84,954 across Delaware and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Claymont?
10.0%, against 10.4% across Delaware and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Claymont?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Delaware and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Claymont work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (12%, 6 mi), Philadelphia (5%, 22 mi), New Castle (3%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Claymont walkable?
Claymont is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Claymont without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 37% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Claymont, from the people who make the trip.
More of Claymont
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.