Photo: Phoenix-Five · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Blair Township works elsewhere
Blair Township grades C+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability. 1,654 jobs are based in Blair Township for 3,766 working residents. Only 4% work in Blair Township itself; outside it, Traverse City draws the most (36%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Blair Township in brief
Jobs in Blair Township have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Blair Township went from 425 in 2011 to 1,654 in 2021, +289%. The jobs ↓
36% of Blair Township works in Traverse City
1,356 working residents, 36%, have their main job in Traverse City, 8.7 miles away. That’s 9 times as many as work in Blair Township itself. The commute map ↓
Most Blair Township residents work close to home
66% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Blair Township makes and builds things
42% of the jobs based in Blair Township are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Blair Township residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 17%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Blair Township are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 24 across Michigan. That’s about 38 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Inside Blair Township’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Blair Township is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #487 of 701 in Michigan. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Blair Township’s grade.
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, poverty and unemployment, Blair Township could be anywhere from C− to B+.
In Blair Township, 42% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Blair Township, 2011 → 2021: 425 → 1,654. 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 Blair Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting out of Blair Township: the destinations
Where Blair Township clocks in
36% of workers
18% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Blair 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.
About 19 minutes each way, quicker than most of Michigan
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Blair Township workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,221 commuters (the 9% 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.
In and out of Blair Township on a workday
On a workday 3,619 residents head out to work, 147 work right here, and 1,507 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,100 people are in Blair Township on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
Blair Township is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Blair Township is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns, #459 of 701 in Michigan. Both inputs place Blair 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 4,639 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 41% 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). 5.3% of Blair Township households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Blair Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Blair Township next to U.S. towns of 6,400 to 12,400: 1,971st of 2,886 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 4 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Grosse Pointe Farms MI | 9,735 | $161K | 2.5% | 1.9% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Jamestown Township MI | 10,702 | $120K | 2.8% | 1.1% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,969 | Dalhart TX | 8,377 | $72K | 12.3% | 2.5% | 28% | C+ |
| 1,970 | Schriever LA | 6,690 | $67K | 13.9% | 4.0% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,971 | Blair Township MI | 9,208 | $72K | 11.1% | 4.6% | 4% | C+ |
| 1,972 | Hoosick NY | 6,678 | $63K | 12.8% | 1.9% | 18% | C+ |
| 1,973 | Forestdale AL | 9,742 | $67K | 17.8% | 5.5% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,886 | 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 Blair Township, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Work next door: 25% of Blair Township’s workers
The biggest share goes to Garfield Township (18%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Blair Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blair Township | – | C+ | C− | 19 min | $71,582 |
| Paradise Township | under 1% | C+ | C | 28 min | $74,084 |
| Garfield Township | 18% | C+ | A | 17 min | $66,082 |
| East Bay Township | 3% | B | B− | 20 min | $85,291 |
| Green Lake Township | 4% | B | C− | 24 min | $92,784 |
| Mayfield Township | under 1% | C− | C− | 30 min | $74,432 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Blair 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 Blair Township: questions
What is the median household income in Blair Township?
$71,582 (±$9,478) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Blair Township?
11.1%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Blair Township?
19 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Blair Township work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Traverse City (36%, 9 mi), Garfield Township (18%, 7 mi), Green Lake Township (4%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Blair Township walkable?
Blair Township is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Blair Township 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 Blair Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Blair 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.