Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domainCollege students make up 80% of Alfred’s residents
For jobs and income Alfred is better than 23% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (A). About one in four work in Alfred itself; outside it, Alfred draws the most (25%, 2 miles). Leaving out college students, 23.8% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 13.5% for New York as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Alfred stands out on work
Commutes from Alfred are quick
The average trip to work takes 12 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 161 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
Alfred is where the jobs are
Alfred has 2,157 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
45% 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 950 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Alfred’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Family income holds Alfred’s grade up ($103,750, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (31% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 23.8%, against 37.4% for all residents. Unemployment (16.4%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($103,750), since student households pull the household median down ($40,625).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Alfred could be anywhere from D to B+.
Alfred’s commute takes about 12 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Alfred workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,228 commuters (the 16% who work from home are left out). Across New York: 57% drive alone, 25% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The daily flow of workers through Alfred
On a workday 726 residents head out to work, 224 work right here, and 1,933 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,400 people are in Alfred on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
2.3 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 2023, primary jobs.
The commute from Alfred, by distance
About 45% 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.
Commuting in to Alfred: where workers come from
Where Alfred clocks in
25% 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.
Alfred is a services town
2,157 jobs are based in Alfred.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Alfred, 2013 → 2023: 1,931 → 2,157. 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 Alfred’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Alfred
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 47.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 8.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,461 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 42% 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). 11.0% of Alfred households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Alfred’s commuters take a bus or train.
Alfred next to U.S. towns of 3,600 to 6,900: 2,898th of 3,627 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| 21 | Kings Point NY | 5,710 | $211K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,896 | Arcadia WI | 3,840 | $75K | 16.5% | 5.6% | 21% | C− |
| 2,897 | Brownfields LA | 4,261 | $66K | 24.3% | 19.7% | 1% | C− |
| 2,898 | Alfred NY | 5,147 | $41K | 37.4% | 16.4% | 24% | C− |
| 2,899 | South Glens Falls NY | 3,704 | $59K | 12.4% | 9.5% | 6% | C− |
| 2,900 | Sayre PA | 5,328 | $51K | 7.8% | 11.9% | 30% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,627 | 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 Alfred, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
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.
- Students. 80% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Alfred: questions
What is the median household income in Alfred?
$40,625 (±$11,737) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Alfred?
37.4% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 23.8%. New York: 14.0%.
How long is the commute from Alfred?
12 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Alfred work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Alfred (25%, 2 mi), Hornell (5%, 8 mi), Wellsville (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Alfred walkable?
Alfred is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 48% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Alfred without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Alfred, from the people who make the trip.
More of Alfred
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.