Brooks House · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainFew U.S. towns have household incomes as low as Middlesborough’s
Middlesborough grades D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Measured by household income, Middlesborough is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The poverty rate is 31.0%; Kentucky has 16.1%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Middlesborough, in brief
Middlesborough is where the jobs are
Middlesborough has 4,621 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Middlesborough workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Middlesborough’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Middlesborough are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 24 across Kentucky. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Kentucky worker. 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.
Where Middlesborough’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Middlesborough is better than 3% of U.S. towns, #139 of 142 in Kentucky. Job access by car holds Middlesborough’s grade up (ahead of 26% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($31,106, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Middlesborough could be anywhere from D− to D.
Who commutes out of Middlesborough, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,879 residents head out to work, 1,038 work right here, and 3,583 people come in from elsewhere.
About 10,000 people are in Middlesborough on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Factories, building and farms: 28% of the jobs in Middlesborough
4,621 jobs are based in Middlesborough.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Middlesborough, 2013 → 2023: 4,719 → 4,621. 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 Middlesborough’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Middlesborough: 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 Middlesborough workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,706 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Kentucky: 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 towns that send workers to Middlesborough
Where Middlesborough clocks in
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.
Half of Middlesborough commutes less than 13 miles
About 28% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Middlesborough
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Middlesborough is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #33 of 142 in Kentucky. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Kentucky, on an EPA index of 7.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,825 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 10.9% of Middlesborough households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Middlesborough’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Middlesborough compares with U.S. towns of 6,100 to 11,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Francisville KY | 10,565 | $159K | 1.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Union KY | 7,937 | $137K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 185 | Oakbrook KY | 10,211 | $95K | 2.5% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,907 | Indianola MS | 8,637 | $42K | 30.5% | 13.1% | 35% | D− |
| 2,908 | Union SC | 8,077 | $32K | 28.9% | 11.4% | 16% | D− |
| 2,909 | Middlesborough KY | 8,776 | $31K | 31.0% | 8.5% | 36% | D− |
| 2,910 | Newport AR | 8,193 | $35K | 30.4% | 8.7% | 33% | D− |
| 2,911 | Gouverneur NY | 6,414 | $44K | 21.4% | 7.9% | 32% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,927 | 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 Middlesborough, the top three, the last and three more from Kentucky.
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 Middlesborough: questions
What is the median household income in Middlesborough?
$31,106 (±$5,215) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Middlesborough?
31.0%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Middlesborough?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Middlesborough work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pineville (5%, 10 mi), Lexington (4%, 107 mi), Harrogate (3%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Middlesborough walkable?
Middlesborough is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Middlesborough without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Middlesborough, from the people who make the trip.
More of Middlesborough
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.