Photo: Linda Roy Walls · CC BY-SA 4.0At 15.9%, unemployment in Laurel is among the highest of any U.S. town
Home is the office for 3% of workers, next to 15% for Delaware as a whole. Jobs and income earn Laurel D−; getting around on foot earns it A. Measured by household income, Laurel is behind 89% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Laurel and work: the main findings
Laurel workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 34 minutes each way, against 26 across Delaware. Over a year that’s about 261 hours of commuting, 61 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Laurel workers work from home
Only 3% 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.
Jobs & income in Laurel: the grade in detail
Job access by car holds Laurel’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Laurel could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The daily trip from Laurel: about 34 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laurel workers work from home, vs 15% across Delaware. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,408 commuters (the 3% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Laurel
On a workday 1,512 residents head out to work, 85 work right here, and 950 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,000 people are in Laurel on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.65 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
8% of working residents work in Seaford
Where Laurel clocks in
8% of workers
7% of workers
7% 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 work there is in Laurel: 1,035 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laurel, 2013 → 2023: 945 → 1,035. 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 Laurel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Laurel works
About 20% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Laurel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Laurel is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns, #4 of 37 in Delaware. Both inputs place Laurel near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,446 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 84% 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 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 53% 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). 12.2% of Laurel households have no vehicle (Delaware 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 6% of Laurel’s commuters take a bus or train.
Laurel next to U.S. towns of 3,200 to 6,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 289 | New Castle DE | 5,726 | $89K | 4.7% | 1.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 391 | Clayton DE | 4,527 | $107K | 5.3% | 1.3% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 408 | Greenville DE | 3,713 | $143K | 4.0% | 4.2% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,851 | Point Pleasant WV | 3,869 | $38K | 24.4% | 8.1% | 21% | D− |
| 3,852 | East Porterville CA | 5,066 | $41K | 42.7% | 19.6% | 3% | D− |
| 3,853 | Laurel DE | 4,557 | $49K | 34.6% | 15.9% | 5% | D− |
| 3,854 | Ironwood MI | 4,950 | $41K | 17.0% | 11.0% | 33% | D− |
| 3,855 | Mount Pleasant Township MO | 5,093 | $43K | 23.9% | 9.2% | 32% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,938 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Laurel, 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 Laurel: questions
What is the median household income in Laurel?
$48,644 (±$11,612) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $84,954 across Delaware and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laurel?
34.6%, against 10.4% across Delaware and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Laurel?
34 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Delaware and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Laurel work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Seaford (8%, 6 mi), Georgetown (7%, 13 mi), Salisbury (7%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Laurel walkable?
Laurel is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 11.7 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laurel without a car?
6% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Laurel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laurel
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.