Grand Ledge Chair Company Plant · Photo: Holofect · CC BY-SA 3.0Making a living in Grand Ledge
Working residents average 20 minutes each way, next to 24 for Michigan and 26 for the U.S. Grand Ledge grades B for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in ten stay in Grand Ledge for work; outside it, Lansing is the main destination (24%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Grand Ledge’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Grand Ledge is better than 62% of U.S. towns, #307 of 701 in Michigan. Job access by car holds Grand Ledge’s grade up (ahead of 73% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($68,980, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
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 rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Grand Ledge could be anywhere from C+ to A.
A workday in Grand Ledge: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 3,260 residents head out to work, 295 work right here, and 2,193 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,800 people are in Grand Ledge on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.70 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
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 Grand Ledge’s working residents head each day
Where Grand Ledge clocks in
24% of workers
6% 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.
Inside Grand Ledge’s 2,488 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Grand Ledge, 2011 → 2021: 2,520 → 2,488. 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 Grand Ledge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 20 minutes to work from Grand Ledge
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Grand Ledge workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,179 commuters (the 17% 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.
How many miles Grand Ledge commutes
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.
For most of Grand Ledge, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Grand Ledge is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns, #140 of 701 in Michigan. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,821 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 20% 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). 6.7% of Grand Ledge households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Grand Ledge’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,026 U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,600, Grand Ledge comes 1,406th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Grosse Pointe Farms MI | 9,735 | $161K | 2.5% | 1.9% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,404 | Half Moon NC | 7,378 | $69K | 7.9% | 1.3% | 1% | B |
| 1,405 | Miramar Beach FL | 8,902 | $103K | 4.5% | 5.7% | 30% | B |
| 1,406 | Grand Ledge MI | 7,853 | $69K | 6.2% | 4.6% | 8% | B |
| 1,407 | Jersey Township IL | 10,005 | $74K | 11.1% | 1.2% | 26% | B |
| 1,408 | Williamstown MA | 9,186 | $107K | 11.2% | 2.1% | 40% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,026 | 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 Grand Ledge, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Grand Ledge and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Grand Ledge workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Ledge | – | B | B+ | 20 min | $68,980 |
| Oneida Township | under 2% | A− | D | 23 min | $93,214 |
| Eagle Township | under 2% | A | B | 24 min | $91,582 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Grand Ledge’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 Grand Ledge: questions
What is the median household income in Grand Ledge?
$68,980 (±$8,626) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Grand Ledge?
6.2%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Grand Ledge?
20 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Grand Ledge work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lansing (24%, 10 mi), Delta Township (13%, 5 mi), East Lansing (6%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Grand Ledge walkable?
Grand Ledge is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Grand Ledge without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Grand Ledge, from the people who make the trip.
More of Grand Ledge
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.