Photo: Ascended Dreamer · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Lancaster (1.9%) is lower than in 86% of U.S. towns
Working residents average 23 minutes each way (New Hampshire 27, U.S. 26). For jobs and income Lancaster is better than 34% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in four work in Lancaster itself; outside it, Littleton draws the most (10%, 15 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lancaster at work: what stands out
Income, poverty and work: Lancaster’s grade explained
Unemployment holds Lancaster’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 7% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lancaster could be anywhere from D to B.
The daily flow of workers through Lancaster
On a workday 1,098 residents head out to work, 394 work right here, and 1,074 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 (0.98 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The places Lancaster commutes to
Where Lancaster clocks in
10% of workers
8% 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.
What Lancaster’s employers do
1,468 jobs are based in Lancaster.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lancaster, 2013 → 2023: 1,376 → 1,468. 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 Lancaster’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes each way for Lancaster’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lancaster workers work from home, vs 17% across New Hampshire. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,303 commuters (the 12% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Lancaster
About 28% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Lancaster
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across New Hampshire, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,473 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). 9.1% of Lancaster households have no vehicle (New Hampshire 4.6%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lancaster’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,316 U.S. towns of 2,300 to 4,300, Lancaster comes 2,870th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 199 | Greenland NH | 4,143 | $163K | 0.5% | 2.3% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 248 | Mont Vernon NH | 2,698 | $158K | 4.4% | 1.5% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 275 | Hampton Falls NH | 2,379 | $166K | 4.0% | 2.8% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,868 | Frackville PA | 3,893 | $57K | 18.8% | 3.0% | 5% | C |
| 2,869 | Lebanon VA | 3,075 | $53K | 17.8% | 0.5% | 20% | C |
| 2,870 | Lancaster NH | 3,218 | $69K | 16.7% | 1.9% | 26% | C |
| 2,871 | Westway TX | 3,484 | $45K | 22.9% | 3.3% | 2% | C |
| 2,872 | Middlefield OH | 2,767 | $65K | 9.8% | 8.9% | 15% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,316 | 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 Lancaster, the top three, the last and three more from New Hampshire.
The towns around Lancaster
The biggest share goes to Northumberland (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lancaster workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lancaster | – | C | A− | 23 min | $68,911 |
| Northumberland | 3% | D− | B | 18 min | $40,268 |
| Jefferson | 2% | C | C+ | 35 min | $67,188 |
| Dalton | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Dalton: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lancaster’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 Lancaster: questions
What is the median household income in Lancaster?
$68,911 (±$23,307) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,031 across New Hampshire and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lancaster?
16.7%, against 7.2% across New Hampshire and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lancaster?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across New Hampshire and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lancaster work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Littleton (10%, 15 mi), Whitefield (8%, 7 mi), Carroll (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lancaster walkable?
Lancaster is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lancaster without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lancaster, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lancaster
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.