Photo: John Phelan · CC BY-SA 3.0Chesterfield has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs & income B+: better than 69% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C−: more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are higher than in 80% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 31 minutes each way (Massachusetts 29, U.S. 26). Only 1% work in Chesterfield; the top destination outside it is Northampton (22%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Chesterfield
What’s behind Chesterfield’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Chesterfield is better than 69% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Chesterfield’s grade up ($103,967, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Chesterfield’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, Chesterfield could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Chesterfield quiets down on a workday
On a workday 529 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 131 people come in from elsewhere.
About 760 people are in Chesterfield on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than live here.
0.26 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.
22% of working residents work in Northampton
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Chesterfield clocks in
22% of workers
9% of workers
7% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Chesterfield makes things: 39% of its jobs are in goods
137 jobs are based in Chesterfield. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Chesterfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chesterfield, 2013 → 2023: 101 → 137. 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.
About 31 minutes each way, longer than most of Massachusetts
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chesterfield workers work from home, vs 19% across Massachusetts. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 545 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across Massachusetts: 75% drive alone, 8% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Chesterfield commutes less than 16 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
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.
Most trips from Chesterfield start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Chesterfield is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 14.1% across Massachusetts, on an EPA index of 4.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 629 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 0.0 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). 3.9% of Chesterfield households have no vehicle (Massachusetts 11.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Chesterfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
Chesterfield is 748th of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Chesterfield, the top three, the last and three more from Massachusetts.
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 541 | Blandford MA | 1,212 | $92K | 5.5% | 0.3% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 671 | New Marlborough MA | 1,500 | $117K | 2.5% | 3.5% | 12% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 710 | Monterey MA | 1,093 | $152K | 4.1% | 9.4% | 9% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 746 | Loma CO | 1,350 | $141K | 5.9% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| 747 | Bevil Oaks TX | 1,042 | $91K | 7.7% | 6.8% | 1% | B+ |
| 748 | Chesterfield MA | 1,154 | $104K | 6.4% | 2.9% | 1% | B+ |
| 749 | Woodmohr WI | 1,019 | $87K | 4.3% | 3.7% | 3% | B+ |
| 750 | Sunnyland IL | 1,231 | $91K | 15.4% | 21.0% | 0% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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.
12% of Chesterfield works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Williamsburg (9%). Darker towns draw more of Chesterfield’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Chesterfield workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chesterfield | – | B+ | C− | 31 min | $103,967 |
| Huntington | under 3% | B | C− | 34 min | $94,398 |
| Goshen | 3% | — | — | 31 min | — |
| Worthington | under 3% | B− | B− | 41 min | $91,667 |
| Williamsburg | 9% | A− | A− | 25 min | $104,792 |
Same-state neighbors only. Goshen: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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 Chesterfield: questions
What is the median household income in Chesterfield?
$103,967 (±$10,944) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,960 across Massachusetts and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chesterfield?
6.4%, against 10.0% across Massachusetts and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chesterfield?
31 minutes each way on average, against 29 across Massachusetts and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chesterfield work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Northampton (22%, 9 mi), Williamsburg (9%, 7 mi), Springfield (7%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chesterfield walkable?
Chesterfield is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chesterfield without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Chesterfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chesterfield
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.