Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0There are 3.4 jobs in Lincoln for every working resident, and 1,659 people commute in
About one in three stay in Lincoln for work; outside it, Waterville Valley is the main destination (10%, 14 miles). 1,861 jobs are based in Lincoln; 548 of its residents have a job. Lincoln grades C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Lincoln stands out on work
Lincoln has far more jobs than workers
Lincoln has 1,861 jobs, 3.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,000 people are in town, 79% more than the 1,700 who live here. Day and night ↓
Many jobs in Lincoln pay little
36% of the jobs based in Lincoln pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 30% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 548 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Lincoln
On income, poverty and job access, Lincoln is better than 38% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Lincoln’s grade up (6.2%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Lincoln’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Lincoln could be anywhere from D to B+.
The daily flow of workers through Lincoln
On a workday 346 residents head out to work and 202 work right here.
About 3,000 people are in Lincoln on a workday afternoon, 79% more than live here.
3.4 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 2024, primary jobs.
What Lincoln’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lincoln, 2014 → 2024: 1,464 → 1,861. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Lincoln’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Lincoln’s workforce comes from
Where Lincoln clocks in
10% of workers
3% 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.
About 23 minutes each way, quicker than most of New Hampshire
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lincoln workers work from home, vs 17% across New Hampshire. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 564 commuters (the 16% 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.
How far Lincoln goes to work
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 2024.
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: Lincoln
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lincoln is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across New Hampshire, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 674 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). 4.4% of Lincoln households have no vehicle (New Hampshire 4.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lincoln’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200, Lincoln comes 2,706th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 154 | Newfields NH | 1,775 | $198K | 2.4% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 252 | Kensington NH | 2,092 | $165K | 1.9% | 3.6% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 393 | Madbury NH | 1,927 | $148K | 4.9% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,704 | Papaikou HI | 1,332 | $79K | 10.9% | 3.4% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,705 | Churchill OH | 1,608 | $49K | 12.0% | 7.5% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,706 | Lincoln NH | 1,664 | $71K | 6.2% | 2.9% | 37% | C+ |
| 2,707 | Urbana NY | 2,048 | $77K | 8.4% | 2.8% | 22% | C+ |
| 2,708 | Ellicottville NY | 1,298 | $71K | 6.9% | 7.5% | 21% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 7% | 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 Lincoln, the top three, the last and three more from New Hampshire.
How Lincoln compares with the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Lincoln’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 2024, 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 Lincoln: questions
What is the median household income in Lincoln?
$70,625 (±$54,096) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,031 across New Hampshire and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lincoln?
6.2%, against 7.2% across New Hampshire and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lincoln?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across New Hampshire and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lincoln work?
37% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterville Valley (10%, 14 mi), Plymouth (3%, 25 mi), Lebanon (3%, 44 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Lincoln walkable?
Lincoln is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 16% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lincoln without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lincoln, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lincoln
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.