Photo: Ken Gallager · CC BY-SA 4.0Freedom has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
About one in ten work in Freedom; the top destination outside it is Conway (14%, 11 miles). Employers in Freedom report 233 jobs for 576 working residents. Jobs and income earn Freedom D; getting around on foot earns it C−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Freedom: the figures worth knowing
How Freedom earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Freedom is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Freedom’s grade up ($66,136, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.3%) is left out: Freedom’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Freedom could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Half of Freedom commutes less than 21 miles
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Freedom quiets down on a workday
On a workday 514 residents head out to work, 62 work right here, and 171 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Freedom on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where people from Freedom work
Where Freedom clocks in
14% of workers
7% 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.
Jobs in Freedom: what the 233 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Freedom, 2013 → 2023: 192 → 233. 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 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Freedom’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Freedom spends getting to work: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Freedom workers work from home, vs 17% across New Hampshire. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 404 commuters (the 19% who work from home are left out). Across New Hampshire: 87% 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.
For most of Freedom, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Freedom is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.6% across New Hampshire.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 496 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). 4.3% of Freedom households have no vehicle (New Hampshire 4.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Freedom’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Freedom is 4,645th of 5,760 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 166 | Newfields NH | 1,775 | $198K | 2.4% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 271 | Kensington NH | 2,092 | $165K | 1.9% | 3.6% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 426 | Madbury NH | 1,927 | $148K | 4.9% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,643 | Busseron Township IN | 1,251 | $46K | 13.4% | 1.0% | 9% | D |
| 4,644 | Au Sable Township MI | 2,025 | $51K | 11.4% | 5.8% | 16% | D |
| 4,645 | Freedom NH | 1,707 | $66K | 15.0% | 4.3% | 11% | D |
| 4,646 | Hopewell Township PA | 1,881 | $64K | 16.6% | 4.5% | 2% | D |
| 4,647 | Ponderay ID | 2,024 | $51K | 14.6% | 6.5% | 16% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Freedom, the top three, the last and three more from New Hampshire.
Freedom and its neighbors: 12% work next door
The biggest share goes to Ossipee (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Freedom workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freedom | – | D | C− | 26 min | $66,136 |
| Ossipee | 7% | B | C | 33 min | $90,521 |
| Effingham | under 3% | C | D | 32 min | $76,607 |
| Eaton | under 3% | — | — | 33 min | — |
| Madison | 5% | C+ | C+ | 22 min | $102,697 |
Same-state neighbors only. Eaton: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Freedom’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 2023, 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 Freedom: questions
What is the median household income in Freedom?
$66,136 (±$14,428) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,031 across New Hampshire and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Freedom?
15.0%, against 7.2% across New Hampshire and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Freedom?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across New Hampshire and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Freedom work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Conway (14%, 11 mi), Ossipee (7%, 8 mi), Madison (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Freedom walkable?
Freedom is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Freedom without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Freedom, from the people who make the trip.
More of Freedom
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, 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.