Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0Ship Bottom draws 772 commuters a day, with 2.0 jobs for every working resident
Household incomes here are higher than in 83% of U.S. towns. Ship Bottom has 809 jobs, against 410 working residents. For jobs and income Ship Bottom is better than 81% of U.S. towns (A−); for walkability it is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Ship Bottom, in a few figures
Ship Bottom is where the jobs are
Ship Bottom has 809 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Ship Bottom has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Ship Bottom went from 416 in 2013 to 809 in 2023, +94%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 410 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Ship Bottom’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
The poverty rate holds Ship Bottom’s grade up (3.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 42% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.3%) is left out: Ship Bottom’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, Ship Bottom could be anywhere from B to A.
A workday in Ship Bottom: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 373 residents head out to work and 37 work right here.
About 1,500 people are in Ship Bottom on a workday afternoon, 35% more 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.
The kinds of work in Ship Bottom
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ship Bottom, 2013 → 2023: 416 → 809. 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 Ship Bottom’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Ship Bottom’s commute, mile by mile
About 32% 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.
The daily trip into Ship Bottom
Where Ship Bottom clocks in
10% of workers
5% 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.
Getting to work from Ship Bottom takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ship Bottom workers work from home, vs 17% across New Jersey. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 300 commuters (the 22% who work from home are left out). Across New Jersey: 75% drive alone, 10% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Good to walk, short on transit: Ship Bottom
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 385 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). 3.7% of Ship Bottom households have no vehicle (New Jersey 11.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Ship Bottom’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ship Bottom ranks: 322nd of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 113 | Port Republic NJ | 1,125 | $123K | 1.3% | 9.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 130 | Mannington Township NJ | 1,495 | $109K | 4.2% | 3.4% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 214 | Califon NJ | 1,034 | $128K | 7.5% | 3.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 320 | Prairie Township IN | 1,084 | $101K | 0.0% | 1.5% | 1% | A− |
| 321 | Stonington CT | 1,017 | $109K | 5.1% | 5.4% | 3% | A− |
| 322 | Ship Bottom NJ | 1,126 | $109K | 3.7% | 2.3% | 9% | A− |
| 323 | Blue River Township IN | 1,470 | $104K | 11.5% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| 324 | Mitchell IL | 1,092 | $60K | 1.8% | 1.9% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Ship Bottom, the top three, the last and three more from New Jersey.
Work next door: 19% of Ship Bottom’s workers
The biggest share goes to Stafford Township (10%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ship Bottom workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ship Bottom | – | A− | A | 27 min | $108,750 |
| Stafford Township | 10% | A− | B | 31 min | $117,612 |
| Long Beach Township | 5% | B− | A | 29 min | $113,224 |
| Surf City | 4% | A− | A | 35 min | $118,750 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ship Bottom’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 Ship Bottom: questions
What is the median household income in Ship Bottom?
$108,750 (±$33,141) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,556 across New Jersey and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ship Bottom?
3.7%, against 9.7% across New Jersey and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ship Bottom?
27 minutes each way on average, against 31 across New Jersey and 26 nationally. 22% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ship Bottom work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stafford Township (10%, 6 mi), Toms River Township (5%, 24 mi), Long Beach Township (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ship Bottom walkable?
Ship Bottom is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.1 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ship Bottom without a car?
3% 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 Ship Bottom, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ship Bottom
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.