Photo: Spongetastic69 · CC BY-SA 4.0Rye’s household incomes are higher than in 94% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 6.9% of residents; New Hampshire has 7.2%. Rye grades A− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 31% of workers, where New Hampshire as a whole has 17%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Rye and work: the main findings
Home offices are common in Rye
31% of Rye workers work from home, against 17% across New Hampshire. Time on the road ↓
Rye and Portsmouth trade workers both ways
Portsmouth is the top workplace for Rye residents (25%) and also where the most people who work in Rye come from (10% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Rye’s workforce skews older
37% of Rye’s working residents are 55 or older. The jobs ↓
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.
Where Rye’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Rye is better than 75% of U.S. towns, #55 of 126 in New Hampshire. Household income is its strongest input ($140,655, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (4.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Rye could be anywhere from B− to A+.
About 29 minutes each way, longer than most of New Hampshire
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rye workers work from home, vs 17% across New Hampshire. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,805 commuters (the 31% 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.
25% of working residents work in Portsmouth
Where Rye clocks in
25% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
1,250 jobs are based in Rye.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rye, 2013 → 2023: 1,034 → 1,250. 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 Rye’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Rye
On a workday 2,203 residents head out to work, 157 work right here, and 1,093 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,600 people are in Rye on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
0.53 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.
How far Rye’s workers travel
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.
The commute in Rye is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rye is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns, #80 of 126 in New Hampshire. Both inputs place Rye 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 2,614 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). 4.9% of Rye households have no vehicle (New Hampshire 4.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rye’s commuters take a bus or train.
Rye places 965th of 3,476 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 4,000 to 7,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 110 | Auburn NH | 6,336 | $153K | 2.5% | 1.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 143 | Brookline NH | 5,858 | $171K | 0.6% | 0.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 163 | North Hampton NH | 4,526 | $146K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 963 | Jackson Township IN | 4,226 | $77K | 6.9% | 2.2% | 3% | A− |
| 964 | Dexter Township MI | 6,510 | $124K | 5.9% | 5.1% | 2% | A− |
| 965 | Rye NH | 5,689 | $141K | 6.9% | 4.2% | 7% | A− |
| 966 | Union Township NJ | 6,649 | $138K | 4.0% | 7.9% | 4% | A− |
| 967 | Wauna WA | 4,805 | $103K | 6.0% | 3.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,476 | 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 Rye, the top three, the last and three more from New Hampshire.
The towns next door employ 25% of Rye
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Rye workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rye | – | A− | C+ | 29 min | $140,655 |
| New Castle | under 3% | — | — | 33 min | — |
| North Hampton | under 3% | A+ | B− | 25 min | $146,458 |
| Portsmouth | 25% | A− | A | 22 min | $106,219 |
| Greenland | under 3% | A | B+ | 21 min | $162,837 |
Same-state neighbors only. New Castle: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Portsmouth. Darker towns draw more of Rye’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 Rye: questions
What is the median household income in Rye?
$140,655 (±$39,204) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,031 across New Hampshire and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rye?
6.9%, against 7.2% across New Hampshire and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rye?
29 minutes each way on average, against 27 across New Hampshire and 26 nationally. 31% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rye work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Portsmouth (25%, 4 mi), Manchester (5%, 37 mi), Exeter (4%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rye walkable?
Rye is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rye without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rye, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rye
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.