Horton Bary School · Photo: rossograph · CC BY-SA 4.0Bay Township has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Only 2% work in Bay Township; the top destination outside it is Boyne City (17%, 6 miles). There are 79 jobs in Bay Township, against 439 working residents. The two grades for Bay Township are B− for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Bay Township
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Bay Township
On income, poverty and job access, Bay Township is better than 52% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Bay Township’s grade up (4.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (3.6%) is left out: Bay Township’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, Bay Township could be anywhere from C+ to B.
Bay Township by day and by night
On a workday 429 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 69 people come in from elsewhere.
About 780 people are in Bay Township 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 2021, primary jobs.
Where people from Bay Township work
Where Bay Township clocks in
13% 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 Bay Township’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bay Township, 2011 → 2021: 43 → 79. 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 Bay Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Bay Township: about 21 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bay Township workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 453 commuters (the 15% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Bay Township
About 22% 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.
For most of Bay Township, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bay Township is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Bay Township 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 535 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). 1.9% of Bay Township households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Bay Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Bay Township comes 1,167th on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 225 | Petersburg MI | 1,152 | $83K | 1.8% | 1.7% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 275 | Freedom Township MI | 1,298 | $113K | 6.7% | 2.5% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,165 | Hodgkins IL | 1,480 | $62K | 15.6% | 3.9% | 7% | B− |
| 1,166 | Glen Dale WV | 1,404 | $82K | 10.6% | 2.5% | 6% | B− |
| 1,167 | Bay Township MI | 1,139 | $81K | 4.4% | 3.6% | 2% | B− |
| 1,168 | Brush Creek Township OH | 1,065 | $75K | 0.8% | 3.7% | 1% | B− |
| 1,169 | Choudrant LA | 1,032 | $73K | 8.1% | 0.5% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Bay Township, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Bay Township and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Resort Township (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bay Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Township | – | B− | D | 21 min | $80,833 |
| Resort Township | 4% | B+ | B− | 20 min | $103,929 |
| Hayes Township | under 3% | B+ | C− | 23 min | $82,083 |
| Evangeline Township | under 3% | — | — | 22 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Evangeline Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bay Township’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 Bay Township: questions
What is the median household income in Bay Township?
$80,833 (±$9,968) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bay Township?
4.4%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bay Township?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bay Township work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Boyne City (17%, 6 mi), Petoskey (13%, 6 mi), Charlevoix (5%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Bay Township walkable?
Bay Township is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bay Township without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bay Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bay Township
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.