Photo: Keller.baum · CC BY-SA 3.0Bellaire draws 659 commuters a day, with 1.8 jobs for every working resident
There are 731 jobs in Bellaire, against 407 working residents. Bellaire grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Bellaire in brief
Bellaire is where the jobs are
Bellaire has 731 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A lot of Bellaire works one town over
28% of working residents work in a town that borders Bellaire: Kearney Township (23%) and Forest Home Township (5%). Next door ↓
A lot of Bellaire works from home
27% of Bellaire workers work from home, against 14% across Michigan. 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 407 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Bellaire
On income, poverty and job access, Bellaire is better than 9% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Bellaire’s grade up (14.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.2%) is left out: Bellaire’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, Bellaire could be anywhere from D− to C.
How many people are in Bellaire by day
On a workday 335 residents head out to work and 72 work right here.
About 1,400 people are in Bellaire on a workday afternoon, 31% more 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.
From Bellaire, about 17 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bellaire workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 358 commuters (the 27% 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.
Who travels to work in Bellaire, and from where
Where Bellaire clocks in
7% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Bellaire
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bellaire, 2011 → 2021: 791 → 731. 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 Bellaire’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Bellaire commutes
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.
In Bellaire, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bellaire is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 488 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). 6.7% of Bellaire households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bellaire’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,626th of 3,133: where Bellaire ranks among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 172 | Petersburg MI | 1,152 | $83K | 1.8% | 1.7% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 216 | Freedom Township MI | 1,298 | $113K | 6.7% | 2.5% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,624 | Cordova NC | 1,372 | $61K | 46.7% | 27.7% | 4% | D |
| 2,625 | Sandoval IL | 1,123 | $53K | 26.7% | 4.5% | 3% | D |
| 2,626 | Bellaire MI | 1,059 | $56K | 14.0% | 0.2% | 18% | D |
| 2,627 | Weldon NC | 1,374 | $48K | 17.5% | 6.5% | 6% | D |
| 2,628 | West Carroll Township PA | 1,140 | $51K | 24.5% | 8.9% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Bellaire, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Bordering towns draw 28% of Bellaire’s workers
The biggest share goes to Kearney Township (23%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bellaire workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bellaire | – | D | A− | 17 min | $55,789 |
| Forest Home Township | 5% | C | B+ | 22 min | $81,111 |
| Kearney Township | 23% | C− | C+ | 18 min | $72,153 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bellaire’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 Bellaire: questions
What is the median household income in Bellaire?
$55,789 (±$14,195) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bellaire?
14.0%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bellaire?
17 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 27% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bellaire work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Kearney Township (23%, 4 mi), Central Lake Township (7%, 8 mi), Traverse City (7%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Bellaire walkable?
Bellaire is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bellaire 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 Bellaire, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bellaire
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.