Photo: Cityofhoughton1 · CC BY-SA 4.0College students make up 60% of Houghton’s residents
Commuters spend 11 minutes getting to work on average, next to 24 for Michigan and 26 for the U.S. For jobs and income Houghton is better than 36% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (A). Family incomes here are higher than in 82% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Houghton: the figures worth knowing
Commutes from Houghton are quick
The average trip to work takes 11 minutes, against 24 across Michigan. That’s about 100 hours a year less on the road than the typical Michigan worker, and quicker than any town next door (15 to 31 minutes). Time on the road ↓
Houghton is where the jobs are
Houghton has 4,139 jobs, 2.4 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% 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 ↓
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.
Where Houghton’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Family income holds Houghton’s grade up ($126,250, U.S. $99,999); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (37% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 17.6%, against 40.1% for all residents. Unemployment (10.3%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($126,250), since student households pull the household median down ($43,456).
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 family income and poverty, Houghton could be anywhere from C− to B+.
From Houghton, about 11 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Houghton workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,360 commuters (the 10% 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 commutes out of Houghton, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,029 residents head out to work, 715 work right here, and 3,424 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Houghton on a workday afternoon, 28% more than live here.
2.4 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Miles to work from Houghton
About 31% 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 in to Houghton: where workers come from
Where Houghton clocks in
10% of workers
3% 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.
Most jobs in Houghton are in services
4,139 jobs are based in Houghton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Houghton, 2011 → 2021: 5,127 → 4,139. 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 Houghton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Houghton
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 43.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 8.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,740 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). 11.0% of Houghton households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 11% of Houghton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Houghton next to U.S. towns of 6,000 to 11,600: 2,120th of 2,944 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,118 | Oronoko Township MI | 9,074 | $60K | 16.8% | 3.9% | 23% | C+ |
| 2,119 | St. Louis MI | 7,406 | $51K | 13.4% | 2.8% | 11% | C+ |
| 2,120 | Houghton MI | 8,560 | $43K | 40.1% | 10.3% | 41% | C+ |
| 2,121 | Lampasas TX | 7,988 | $67K | 15.1% | 3.1% | 20% | C+ |
| 2,122 | Madison Township OH | 6,468 | $59K | 16.1% | 1.5% | 21% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,944 | 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 Houghton, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
The towns next door employ 10% of Houghton
The biggest share goes to Portage Township (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Houghton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houghton | – | C+ | A | 11 min | $43,456 |
| Portage Township | 6% | C+ | B+ | 15 min | $66,652 |
| Stanton Township | under 1% | C+ | D | 31 min | $85,800 |
| Adams Township | 3% | C− | C+ | 22 min | $63,914 |
| Hurontown | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
| Franklin Township | 1% | C | C | 16 min | $78,155 |
| Dollar Bay | under 1% | — | — | 17 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Hurontown and Dollar Bay: Census-designated places inside larger towns, graded as part of them. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Houghton’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.
- Students. 60% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Houghton: questions
What is the median household income in Houghton?
$43,456 (±$10,793) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Houghton?
40.1% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 17.6%. Michigan: 13.2%.
How long is the commute from Houghton?
11 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Houghton work?
41% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hancock (10%, 2 mi), Portage Township (6%, 10 mi), Marquette (3%, 68 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Houghton walkable?
Houghton is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 44% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Houghton without a car?
11% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Houghton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Houghton
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.