Charles and Edith Liedlich House · Photo: Choess · CC BY-SA 4.0Newark is a college town: 47% of residents are students
Measured by family income, Newark is ahead of 84% of U.S. towns. The two grades for Newark are A− for jobs and income and A+ for walkability. About one in ten work in Newark itself; outside it, Wilmington draws the most (8%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Newark
No single place dominates Newark’s commute
The biggest draw, Wilmington, gets only 8% of working residents, and 65% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Newark residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Newark draws workers from far and wide
The 12,943 jobs in Newark are filled from a wide area. Newark’s own residents hold 8% and the ten next-biggest home towns 23%; the other 69% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Newark are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 26 across Delaware. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Delaware worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Newark than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Newark fell from 19,036 in 2013 to 12,943 in 2023, −32%. 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 ↓
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.
How Newark earns its Jobs & income grade
Family income is its strongest input ($131,398, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (8.8%, U.S. 11.9%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (29% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 8.8%, against 27.7% for all residents. Unemployment (6.7%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($131,398), since student households pull the household median down ($76,912).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Newark could be anywhere from B to A+.
The towns that employ Newark’s residents
Where Newark clocks in
8% of workers
4% of workers
2% 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.
Getting to work from Newark takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Newark workers work from home, vs 15% across Delaware. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 10,580 commuters (the 19% 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.
What work there is in Newark: 12,943 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Newark, 2013 → 2023: 19,036 → 12,943. 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 Newark’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily flow of workers through Newark
On a workday 8,017 residents head out to work, 1,039 work right here, and 11,904 people come in from elsewhere.
About 34,000 people are in Newark on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.43 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
How far Newark goes to work
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.
Newark is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 13,024 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 54% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 9% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 10.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 94% 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). 9.2% of Newark households have no vehicle (Delaware 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Newark’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,415 U.S. towns of 21,000 to 41,000, Newark comes 404th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 402 | Lawrence Township NJ | 34,165 | $130K | 4.5% | 6.0% | 12% | A− |
| 403 | Montclair VA | 22,387 | $156K | 3.8% | 5.8% | 2% | A− |
| 404 | Newark DE | 30,359 | $77K | 27.7% | 6.7% | 11% | A− |
| 405 | Bixby OK | 32,766 | $104K | 5.6% | 3.7% | 10% | A− |
| 406 | Saginaw TX | 26,706 | $97K | 5.6% | 4.6% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 799 | Bear DE | 22,370 | $92K | 8.7% | 5.9% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 852 | Middletown DE | 25,798 | $113K | 8.4% | 8.0% | 15% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,258 | Dover DE | 40,592 | $60K | 15.0% | 8.0% | 31% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,415 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Newark, the top three, the last and three more from Delaware.
Newark and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Brookside (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Newark’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.
- Students. 47% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Newark: questions
What is the median household income in Newark?
$76,912 (±$7,638) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $84,954 across Delaware and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Newark?
27.7% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 8.8%. Delaware: 10.4%.
How long is the commute from Newark?
19 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Delaware and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Newark work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (8%, 13 mi), Philadelphia (4%, 40 mi), Dover (2%, 38 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Newark walkable?
Newark is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 10.7 out of 20, and 23% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Newark without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 9% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Newark, from the people who make the trip.
More of Newark
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.