Dayton Historic District · Photo: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing) · Public domainWork means Lafayette for about half of Dayton’s working residents
Dayton grades B for jobs and income and D− for walkability. A typical one-way commute from Dayton lasts 18 minutes (Indiana 24, U.S. 26). Measured by household income, Dayton is ahead of 54% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Dayton stands out on work
Nearly half of Dayton works in Lafayette
309 working residents, 49%, have their main job in Lafayette, 5 miles away across the town line. That’s 49 times as many as work in Dayton itself. The commute map ↓
Dayton is a place people come home to
There are 160 jobs based in Dayton, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Dayton has about 900 people in it, 34% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Most Dayton residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
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 630 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Dayton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Dayton is better than 56% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Dayton’s grade up (ahead of 68% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (12.1%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.2%) is left out: Dayton’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, Dayton could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Commuting out of Dayton: the destinations
Where Dayton clocks in
12% of workers
5% 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.
How many people are in Dayton by day
On a workday 625 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 155 people come in from elsewhere.
About 900 people are in Dayton on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than live here.
0.25 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.
The distance from Dayton to work
About 17% 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.
The kinds of work in Dayton
160 jobs are based in Dayton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dayton, 2013 → 2023: 84 → 160. 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 Dayton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Dayton: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dayton workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 496 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Indiana: 85% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The commute in Dayton is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dayton is near the bottom of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Dayton 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 532 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 0.6% of Dayton households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dayton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Dayton is 1,564th among 5,400 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Meridian Hills IN | 1,800 | $212K | 0.8% | 3.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Galena IN | 1,549 | $128K | 1.8% | 4.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | Ogden Dunes IN | 1,163 | $117K | 3.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,562 | Franklin ID | 1,155 | $82K | 3.6% | 6.2% | 3% | B |
| 1,563 | Maroa IL | 1,517 | $73K | 6.8% | 5.3% | 6% | B |
| 1,564 | Dayton IN | 1,368 | $78K | 12.1% | 2.2% | 1% | B |
| 1,565 | Wakeman OH | 1,019 | $72K | 7.9% | 3.1% | 2% | B |
| 1,566 | Shabbona Township IL | 1,331 | $81K | 8.4% | 7.3% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Dayton, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
49% of Dayton works in a bordering town
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Lafayette. Darker towns draw more of Dayton’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Dayton: questions
What is the median household income in Dayton?
$78,289 (±$8,348) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dayton?
12.1%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dayton?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dayton work?
1% work in town.
Is Dayton walkable?
Dayton is near the bottom of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.2 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dayton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dayton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dayton
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.