Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri · CC BY 3.0Cheboygan’s household incomes are lower than in 95% of U.S. towns
Cheboygan grades D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Below the poverty line: 14.9% of residents; Michigan has 13.2%. Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers, against 14% across Michigan.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cheboygan: the figures worth knowing
Fewer than half of Cheboygan workers earn over $40,000 a year
37% of Cheboygan’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 23% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
37% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Cheboygan workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 14% across Michigan. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Cheboygan
The poverty rate holds Cheboygan’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($42,290, U.S. $80,734).
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, Cheboygan could be anywhere from D− to C−.
What Cheboygan’s employers do
2,059 jobs are based in Cheboygan.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cheboygan, 2011 → 2021: 2,346 → 2,059. 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 Cheboygan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Cheboygan, by distance
About 37% 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.
Commuting from Cheboygan: about 22 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cheboygan workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,802 commuters (the 4% 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 daily commute in and out of Cheboygan
On a workday 1,234 residents head out to work, 399 work right here, and 1,660 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.26 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.
5% of working residents work in Inverness Township
Where Cheboygan clocks in
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.
Cheboygan is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cheboygan is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #64 of 701 in Michigan. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 8.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,882 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). 11.6% of Cheboygan households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Cheboygan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Cheboygan sits among U.S. towns of 3,400 to 6,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Northville MI | 6,013 | $146K | 2.8% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 122 | Vergennes Township MI | 4,968 | $113K | 1.5% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,622 | Lawrenceville IL | 4,356 | $41K | 17.4% | 9.1% | 16% | D− |
| 3,623 | Park Rapids MN | 4,447 | $45K | 21.2% | 8.0% | 43% | D− |
| 3,624 | Cheboygan MI | 4,804 | $42K | 14.9% | 9.2% | 24% | D− |
| 3,625 | Wiggins MS | 4,316 | $50K | 24.8% | 12.0% | 28% | D− |
| 3,626 | Bellaire OH | 3,738 | $38K | 31.8% | 8.7% | 10% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,753 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Cheboygan, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Next door to Cheboygan
The biggest share goes to Inverness Township (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cheboygan workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheboygan | – | D− | A− | 22 min | $42,290 |
| Benton Township | under 2% | C− | D− | 15 min | $68,401 |
| Inverness Township | 5% | C− | D | 20 min | $56,141 |
| Beaugrand Township | under 2% | C− | C | 18 min | $62,083 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cheboygan’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 Cheboygan: questions
What is the median household income in Cheboygan?
$42,290 (±$7,470) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cheboygan?
14.9%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cheboygan?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cheboygan work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Inverness Township (5%, 5 mi), Mackinaw Township (5%, 13 mi), Petoskey (4%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Cheboygan walkable?
Cheboygan is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cheboygan without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cheboygan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cheboygan
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.