Photo: Dwight Burdette · CC BY 3.0Brooklyn has lower household incomes than 79% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 9.0% (Michigan 13.2%). Jobs and income earn Brooklyn C; getting around on foot earns it A−. Only 7% stay in Brooklyn for work; outside it, Jackson is the main destination (15%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Brooklyn at work: what stands out
Brooklyn workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 30 minutes each way, against 24 across Michigan. Over a year that’s about 230 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Many jobs in Brooklyn pay little
26% of the jobs based in Brooklyn pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
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 492 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Brooklyn’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Brooklyn is better than 32% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Brooklyn’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($56,324, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.3%) is left out: Brooklyn’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, Brooklyn could be anywhere from C− to B−.
From Brooklyn, about 30 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brooklyn workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 459 commuters (the 7% 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.
The kinds of work in Brooklyn
640 jobs are based in Brooklyn.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brooklyn, 2011 → 2021: 832 → 640. 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 Brooklyn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Brooklyn on a workday
On a workday 460 residents head out to work, 32 work right here, and 608 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Brooklyn on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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 Brooklyn ends
Where Brooklyn clocks in
15% of workers
11% 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.
Miles to work from Brooklyn
About 17% 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.
Brooklyn is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brooklyn is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.4% 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 494 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). 16.5% of Brooklyn households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brooklyn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000, Brooklyn ranks 3,484th of 6,308 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 166 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,482 | Kissee Mills MO | 1,081 | $67K | 7.2% | 0.0% | 1% | C |
| 3,483 | Waverly IL | 1,142 | $56K | 7.9% | 4.9% | 6% | C |
| 3,484 | Brooklyn MI | 1,450 | $56K | 9.0% | 2.3% | 7% | C |
| 3,485 | Harmony Township IN | 1,219 | $64K | 10.1% | 3.7% | 7% | C |
| 3,486 | Nottingham Township IN | 1,040 | $65K | 9.6% | 0.0% | 4% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Brooklyn, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
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 Brooklyn: questions
What is the median household income in Brooklyn?
$56,324 (±$7,738) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brooklyn?
9.0%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brooklyn?
30 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brooklyn work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (15%, 12 mi), Columbia Township (11%, 1 mi), Blackman Township (9%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Brooklyn walkable?
Brooklyn is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brooklyn without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brooklyn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brooklyn
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.