Michigan Central Railroad Standish Depot · Photo: Ian Poellet (User:Werewombat) · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Standish trail those of 98% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Standish for work; outside it, Chippewa Township is the main destination (7%, 44 miles). The poverty rate is 20.1%; Michigan has 13.2%. Jobs and income earn Standish D; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Standish at work: what stands out
Standish has far more jobs than workers
Standish has 1,724 jobs, 3.5 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,700 people are in town, 85% more than the 1,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
Standish makes and builds things
35% of the jobs based in Standish are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Standish residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 23%. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
33% of the jobs based in Standish are held by workers 29 or younger, against 24% of Standish’s own working residents. 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 496 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Standish’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Standish’s grade up (ahead of 29% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($35,395, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (8.5%) is left out: Standish’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, Standish could be anywhere from D− to D.
How a workday changes Standish
On a workday 419 residents head out to work, 77 work right here, and 1,647 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,700 people are in Standish on a workday afternoon, 85% more than live here.
3.5 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.
In Standish, 35% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
1,724 jobs are based in Standish.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Standish, 2011 → 2021: 1,737 → 1,724. 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 Standish’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip into Standish
Where Standish clocks in
5% of workers
5% 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.
About 25 minutes each way, about the MI average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Standish workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 606 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.
The distance from Standish to work
About 26% 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.
Standish 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, Standish is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Standish 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 663 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). 21.1% of Standish households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Standish’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Standish ranks: 5,548th of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000
| # | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 5,546 | Caraway AR | 1,104 | $39K | 19.5% | 3.3% | 1% | D |
| 5,547 | Jasonville IN | 1,952 | $41K | 14.8% | 10.4% | 7% | D |
| 5,548 | Standish MI | 1,449 | $35K | 20.1% | 8.5% | 16% | D |
| 5,549 | Rock Port MO | 1,246 | $46K | 13.7% | 1.0% | 28% | D |
| 5,550 | Yorktown TX | 1,780 | $59K | 20.2% | 7.9% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Standish, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
How Standish compares with the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Standish workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standish | – | D | A− | 25 min | $35,395 |
| Lincoln Township | under 3% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Standish Township | under 3% | — | — | 31 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Lincoln Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Standish Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Standish’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 Standish: questions
What is the median household income in Standish?
$35,395 (±$6,233) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Standish?
20.1%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Standish?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Standish work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chippewa Township (7%, 44 mi), Saginaw (5%, 39 mi), Pinconning (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Standish walkable?
Standish is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Standish without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 21% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Standish, from the people who make the trip.
More of Standish
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.