Bangor Elevator · Photo: Teemu08 · CC BY-SA 3.0Bangor’s household incomes are lower than in 88% of U.S. towns
19.9% of residents are in poverty; Michigan has 13.2%. For jobs and income Bangor is better than 13% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in ten work in Bangor; the top destination outside it is South Haven (10%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Bangor stands out on work
Fewer than half of Bangor workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Bangor’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Bangor are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 24 across Michigan. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Michigan worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2021, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; 2021 is the newest year Michigan has published; with 665 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Bangor
Job access by car holds Bangor’s grade up (ahead of 40% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($49,764, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (7.6%) is left out: Bangor’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
The commuting and job counts on this page are Census LEHD 2021: Michigan reports later than other states, so its newest year is two years behind.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Bangor could be anywhere from D to C−.
What work there is in Bangor: 920 jobs
920 jobs are based in Bangor.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bangor, 2011 → 2021: 1,007 → 920. 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 2021.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bangor’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 18 minutes in Bangor
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bangor workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 797 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Michigan: 86% 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.
Bangor by day and by night
On a workday 600 residents head out to work, 65 work right here, and 855 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,200 people are in Bangor on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.38 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2021, primary jobs.
Where the trip to work from Bangor ends
Where Bangor clocks in
10% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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.
The distance from Bangor to work
About 21% 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 2021.
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: Bangor
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 7.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 899 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). 6.8% of Bangor households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bangor’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bangor is 4,497th of 5,509 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 137 | Village of Grosse Pointe Shores MI | 2,533 | $190K | 2.7% | 3.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 213 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,495 | Havana FL | 1,759 | $61K | 22.0% | 3.7% | 5% | D |
| 4,496 | Hartford MI | 2,448 | $42K | 16.3% | 8.3% | 9% | D |
| 4,497 | Bangor MI | 1,965 | $50K | 19.9% | 7.6% | 10% | D |
| 4,498 | Ortonville MN | 1,967 | $56K | 12.1% | 2.1% | 43% | D |
| 4,499 | Jasper Township IL | 1,723 | $64K | 15.3% | 2.7% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Bangor, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Bangor and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bangor workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangor | – | D | A− | 18 min | $49,764 |
| Bangor Township | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Arlington Township | under 2% | C− | C | 27 min | $64,926 |
Same-state neighbors only. Bangor Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bangor’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 2021, 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 Bangor: questions
What is the median household income in Bangor?
$49,764 (±$6,038) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bangor?
19.9%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bangor?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bangor work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are South Haven (10%, 10 mi), Kalamazoo (5%, 27 mi), Paw Paw Township (4%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Bangor walkable?
Bangor is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bangor without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bangor, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bangor
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, 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.