Photo: Ascended Dreamer · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Lyme are higher than in 92% of U.S. towns
27% of workers work from home, where New Hampshire as a whole has 17%. 4.4% of residents live below the poverty line (New Hampshire 7.2%). The two grades for Lyme are B+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Lyme: the gist
A lot of Lyme works from home
27% of Lyme workers work from home, against 17% across New Hampshire. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Lyme are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 27 across New Hampshire. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical New Hampshire worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 715 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Lyme’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Lyme is better than 71% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Lyme’s grade up ($133,906, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (4.9%) is left out: Lyme’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, Lyme could be anywhere from B to A−.
A commute of about 21 minutes in Lyme
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lyme workers work from home, vs 17% across New Hampshire. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 610 commuters (the 27% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Lyme
On a workday 682 residents head out to work, 33 work right here, and 254 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Lyme on a workday afternoon, 25% fewer than live here.
0.40 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
18% of working residents work in Lebanon
Where Lyme clocks in
18% of workers
16% 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.
Inside Lyme’s 287 jobs
287 jobs are based in Lyme.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lyme, 2013 → 2023: 364 → 287. 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 Lyme’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Lyme commutes less than 17 miles
About 22% 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.
In Lyme, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lyme is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Lyme 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 838 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). 0.9% of Lyme households have no vehicle (New Hampshire 4.6%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lyme’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Lyme is 1,091st among 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 1,089 | Quail Creek TX | 1,715 | $90K | 5.4% | 10.4% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,090 | Ridgetop TN | 2,156 | $85K | 3.5% | 6.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,091 | Lyme NH | 1,715 | $134K | 4.4% | 4.9% | 5% | B+ |
| 1,092 | Liberty Township OH | 1,673 | $98K | 4.0% | 1.2% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,093 | Prospect Township OH | 2,011 | $84K | 6.6% | 2.9% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Lyme, the top three, the last and three more from New Hampshire.
16% of Lyme works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lyme workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyme | – | B+ | B− | 21 min | $133,906 |
| Hanover | 16% | B | A+ | 20 min | $169,583 |
| Orford | under 2% | B− | B | 26 min | $92,571 |
| Dorchester | under 2% | — | — | 40 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Dorchester: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Hanover. Darker towns draw more of Lyme’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 Lyme: questions
What is the median household income in Lyme?
$133,906 (±$15,102) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,031 across New Hampshire and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lyme?
4.4%, against 7.2% across New Hampshire and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lyme?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across New Hampshire and 26 nationally. 27% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lyme work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lebanon (18%, 15 mi), Hanover (16%, 8 mi), Plymouth (5%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lyme walkable?
Lyme is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lyme without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lyme, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lyme
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.