Photo: Dough4872 · CC BY-SA 4.0Milford has 1.9 jobs for every working resident: 7,447 people commute in to work
About one in five work in Milford; the top destination outside it is Dover (7%, 18 miles). Employers in Milford report 8,431 jobs, against 4,395 working residents. Jobs and income earn Milford C; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Milford in brief
Milford draws workers from far and wide
The 8,431 jobs in Milford are filled from a wide area. Milford’s own residents hold 12% and the ten next-biggest home towns 14%; the other 74% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Milford is where the jobs are
Milford has 8,431 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
No single place dominates Milford’s commute
The biggest draw, Dover, gets only 7% of working residents, and 53% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Milford residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
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.
Inside Milford’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Milford is better than 26% of U.S. towns, #33 of 37 in Delaware. Job access by car holds Milford’s grade up (ahead of 49% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.2%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Milford could be anywhere from D to B−.
Commuting in to Milford: where workers come from
Where Milford clocks in
7% of workers
6% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Milford
On a workday 3,411 residents head out to work and 984 work right here.
About 19,000 people are in Milford on a workday afternoon, 27% more 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.
Milford works in goods: 32% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Milford, 2013 → 2023: 8,028 → 8,431. 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 Milford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes each way, quicker than most of Delaware
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Milford workers work from home, vs 15% across Delaware. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,232 commuters (the 8% 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.
Miles to work from Milford
About 23% 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.
Milford is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Milford is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #19 of 37 in Delaware. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.3% 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 5,694 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 79% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 29% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 72% 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). 16.3% of Milford households have no vehicle (Delaware 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Milford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,362 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 20,000, Milford comes 1,948th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 87 | Hockessin DE | 13,439 | $171K | 1.5% | 2.4% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,014 | Pike Creek Valley DE | 12,431 | $102K | 6.2% | 6.2% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,123 | Glasgow DE | 15,546 | $114K | 8.0% | 6.6% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,946 | Herrin IL | 12,268 | $60K | 14.5% | 5.9% | 17% | C |
| 1,947 | Pendleton OR | 16,989 | $67K | 15.0% | 4.9% | 47% | C |
| 1,948 | Milford DE | 14,723 | $59K | 17.2% | 5.1% | 22% | C |
| 1,949 | Carencro LA | 13,224 | $63K | 24.5% | 6.7% | 5% | C |
| 1,950 | Minden LA | 11,103 | $34K | 26.7% | 2.7% | 34% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,362 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Milford, 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 Milford: questions
What is the median household income in Milford?
$59,464 (±$4,147) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $84,954 across Delaware and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Milford?
17.2%, against 10.4% across Delaware and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Milford?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Delaware and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Milford work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dover (7%, 18 mi), Georgetown (6%, 15 mi), Lewes (3%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Milford walkable?
Milford is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Milford without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. 29% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Milford, from the people who make the trip.
More of Milford
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.