Photo: ToddC4176 · CC BY-SA 3.0Ashfield has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
The two grades for Ashfield are C+ for jobs and income and C for walkability. Ashfield has 201 jobs, and 742 of its residents work somewhere. Only 5% stay in Ashfield for work; outside it, Northampton is the main destination (10%, 15 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Ashfield and work: the main findings
Jobs & income in Ashfield: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Ashfield is better than 38% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Ashfield’s grade up ($80,833, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 14% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Ashfield’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Ashfield could be anywhere from C− to B.
Ashfield by day and by night
On a workday 707 residents head out to work, 35 work right here, and 166 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Ashfield on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer 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.
Where people from Ashfield work
Where Ashfield clocks in
10% 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.
In Ashfield, services account for most jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ashfield, 2013 → 2023: 193 → 201. 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 Ashfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Ashfield’s commute takes about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ashfield workers work from home, vs 19% across Massachusetts. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 687 commuters (the 24% who work from home are left out). Across Massachusetts: 75% drive alone, 8% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Ashfield’s commute, mile by mile
About 25% 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.
Most of Ashfield commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ashfield is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 14.1% across Massachusetts, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 904 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). 5.0% of Ashfield households have no vehicle (Massachusetts 11.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ashfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,896th of 5,760: where Ashfield ranks among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 553 | Whately MA | 1,622 | $117K | 5.4% | 4.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 660 | Otis MA | 1,610 | $109K | 1.2% | 6.2% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 693 | Wales MA | 1,833 | $89K | 5.1% | 5.5% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,894 | Newport PA | 1,511 | $63K | 10.5% | 4.7% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,895 | Braddock Hills PA | 1,650 | $40K | 14.2% | 1.3% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,896 | Ashfield MA | 1,680 | $81K | 9.1% | 3.8% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,897 | Richmond Township PA | 2,142 | $72K | 7.3% | 1.8% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,898 | Papaikou HI | 1,332 | $79K | 10.9% | 3.4% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Ashfield, the top three, the last and three more from Massachusetts.
Around Ashfield: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Conway (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ashfield workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashfield | – | C+ | C | 30 min | $80,833 |
| Goshen | under 3% | — | — | 31 min | — |
| Plainfield | under 3% | — | — | 38 min | — |
| Conway | 6% | B+ | B− | 24 min | $97,250 |
| Cummington | under 3% | — | — | 39 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Goshen, Plainfield and Cummington: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ashfield’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 Ashfield: questions
What is the median household income in Ashfield?
$80,833 (±$15,701) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,960 across Massachusetts and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ashfield?
9.1%, against 10.0% across Massachusetts and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ashfield?
30 minutes each way on average, against 29 across Massachusetts and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ashfield work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Northampton (10%, 15 mi), Greenfield (7%, 12 mi), Conway (6%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ashfield walkable?
Ashfield is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ashfield without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ashfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ashfield
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.