Photo: ToddC4176 · CC BY-SA 3.0Shelburne at work: jobs, income and the commute
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 47.9 in Boston. The two grades for Shelburne are C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in ten work in Shelburne itself; outside it, Greenfield draws the most (12%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Shelburne and work: the main findings
The figures behind Shelburne’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Shelburne is better than 43% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Shelburne’s grade up ($83,000, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.0%) is left out: Shelburne’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, Shelburne could be anywhere from C to B−.
The kinds of work in Shelburne
587 jobs are based in Shelburne.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shelburne, 2013 → 2023: 525 → 587. 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 Shelburne’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Shelburne, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 744 residents head out to work, 97 work right here, and 490 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Shelburne on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.70 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 places Shelburne commutes to
Where Shelburne clocks in
12% 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.
About 29 minutes each way, about the MA average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shelburne workers work from home, vs 19% across Massachusetts. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 595 commuters (the 18% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Shelburne
About 26% 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.
In Shelburne, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shelburne is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Shelburne 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 723 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 44% 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 45% 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). 3.6% of Shelburne households have no vehicle (Massachusetts 11.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Shelburne’s commuters take a bus or train.
Shelburne next to U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500: 2,612th of 5,656 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 577 | Whately MA | 1,622 | $117K | 5.4% | 4.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 666 | Williamsburg MA | 2,445 | $105K | 2.3% | 3.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 693 | Otis MA | 1,610 | $109K | 1.2% | 6.2% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,610 | Whitwell TN | 1,596 | $68K | 9.7% | 4.8% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,611 | Union ME | 2,444 | $81K | 10.2% | 3.2% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,612 | Shelburne MA | 1,868 | $83K | 10.4% | 4.0% | 12% | C+ |
| 2,613 | Spaulding Township MI | 1,914 | $62K | 11.4% | 4.4% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,614 | Boyne Valley Township MI | 1,436 | $77K | 6.8% | 4.2% | 10% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | 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 Shelburne, the top three, the last and three more from Massachusetts.
Shelburne and its neighbors: 22% work next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Shelburne workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelburne | – | C+ | A− | 29 min | $83,000 |
| Conway | under 3% | B+ | B− | 24 min | $97,250 |
| Buckland | 5% | C+ | A− | 31 min | $82,877 |
| Charlemont | 2% | D | B | 37 min | $53,063 |
| Deerfield | 3% | A− | A | 18 min | $106,136 |
| Shelburne Falls | under 3% | — | — | 32 min | — |
| Greenfield | 12% | C− | A | 17 min | $55,614 |
Same-state neighbors only. Shelburne Falls: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Greenfield. Darker towns draw more of Shelburne’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 Shelburne: questions
What is the median household income in Shelburne?
$83,000 (±$4,364) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,960 across Massachusetts and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shelburne?
10.4%, against 10.0% across Massachusetts and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shelburne?
29 minutes each way on average, against 29 across Massachusetts and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shelburne work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greenfield (12%, 4 mi), Buckland (5%, 6 mi), Northampton (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Shelburne walkable?
Shelburne is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 9.7 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shelburne without a car?
0% 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 Shelburne, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shelburne
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.