Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Rowley has higher household incomes than 92% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 3.1% of residents, against 10.0% across Massachusetts. Rowley grades A for jobs and income and B− for walkability. 11% of workers work from home; Massachusetts has 19%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Rowley, in brief
Rowley trades workers with the towns around it
Rowley has about as many jobs (2,693) as working residents (2,885), but they are mostly different people: 2,596 residents leave for work each day while 2,404 people come in. Only 11% of the jobs in Rowley are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Rowley’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Rowley is Boston, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (281) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. 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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Rowley
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Rowley is better than 93% of U.S. towns, #57 of 283 in Massachusetts. Household income is its strongest input ($132,734, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.3%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Rowley could be anywhere from B+ to A+.
The daily flow of workers through Rowley
On a workday 2,596 residents head out to work, 289 work right here, and 2,404 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.93 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 many miles Rowley commutes
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.
10% of working residents work in Boston
Where Rowley clocks in
10% of workers
5% 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.
What work there is in Rowley: 2,693 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rowley, 2013 → 2023: 2,489 → 2,693. 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 Rowley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 28 minutes each way for Rowley’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rowley workers work from home, vs 19% across Massachusetts. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,218 commuters (the 11% 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.
For most of Rowley, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rowley is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns, #227 of 283 in Massachusetts. Both inputs place Rowley 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 3,621 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 0.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 55% 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). 4.9% of Rowley households have no vehicle (Massachusetts 11.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rowley’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Rowley is 307th among 3,396 U.S. towns of 4,400 to 8,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Lincoln MA | 6,925 | $175K | 2.3% | 2.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 89 | Georgetown MA | 8,577 | $152K | 3.8% | 1.7% | 8% | A+ |
| 90 | Hopedale MA | 6,066 | $116K | 2.9% | 1.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 305 | Monee IL | 5,119 | $92K | 6.2% | 1.2% | 4% | A |
| 306 | Delafield WI | 7,314 | $95K | 5.7% | 1.5% | 6% | A |
| 307 | Rowley MA | 6,356 | $133K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 10% | A |
| 308 | Rancho Murieta CA | 5,875 | $140K | 4.1% | 2.5% | 7% | A |
| 309 | Granby MA | 5,991 | $119K | 4.5% | 2.1% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,396 | 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 Rowley, the top three, the last and three more from Massachusetts.
Rowley and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Ipswich (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Rowley workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rowley | – | A | B− | 28 min | $132,734 |
| Newbury | 3% | A | C+ | 24 min | $174,868 |
| Ipswich | 5% | A | A− | 29 min | $138,750 |
| Georgetown | under 3% | A+ | C+ | 34 min | $151,595 |
| Boxford | under 3% | A+ | B− | 31 min | $200,871 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Rowley’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 Rowley: questions
What is the median household income in Rowley?
$132,734 (±$32,311) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,960 across Massachusetts and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rowley?
3.1%, against 10.0% across Massachusetts and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rowley?
28 minutes each way on average, against 29 across Massachusetts and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rowley work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Boston (10%, 28 mi), Newburyport (5%, 6 mi), Beverly (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rowley walkable?
Rowley is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rowley without a car?
0% 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 Rowley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rowley
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.