Rail and Titsworth Canal Warehouse · Photo: eyesofibad · CC BY-SA 3.0Belfast has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
About one in ten work in Belfast; the top destination outside it is Wellsville (9%, 16 miles). Employers in Belfast report 213 jobs for 594 working residents. For jobs and income Belfast is better than 23% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (C−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs & income in Belfast: the grade in detail
The poverty rate holds Belfast’s grade up (9.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 5% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.0%) is left out: Belfast’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, Belfast could be anywhere from D to C+.
The daily commute in and out of Belfast
On a workday 531 residents head out to work, 63 work right here, and 150 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Belfast on a workday afternoon, 23% fewer 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.
Out of Belfast to work: where people go
Where Belfast clocks in
9% of workers
6% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Belfast
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Belfast, 2013 → 2023: 231 → 213. 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 Belfast’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 29 minutes each way, quicker than most of New York
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Belfast workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 673 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Belfast
About 25% 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.
For most of Belfast, work means a drive
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 4.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 798 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). 3.5% of Belfast households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Belfast’s commuters take a bus or train.
Belfast is 4,118th of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 5 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,116 | Elroy WI | 1,255 | $58K | 10.1% | 0.7% | 10% | C− |
| 4,117 | Big Pine CA | 1,615 | $68K | 9.1% | 3.2% | 7% | C− |
| 4,118 | Belfast NY | 1,627 | $65K | 9.0% | 2.0% | 11% | C− |
| 4,119 | Clay Township OH | 1,516 | $71K | 11.7% | 7.2% | 1% | C− |
| 4,120 | Tonopah NV | 1,910 | $47K | 4.9% | 0.0% | 34% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Belfast, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Around Belfast: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Friendship (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Belfast workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast | – | C− | C− | 29 min | $64,954 |
| Caneadea | 3% | C+ | B | 20 min | $82,563 |
| New Hudson | under 3% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| Friendship | 4% | D | C+ | 22 min | $59,750 |
| Angelica | under 3% | C− | C− | 32 min | $60,063 |
Same-state neighbors only. New Hudson: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Belfast’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 Belfast: questions
What is the median household income in Belfast?
$64,954 (±$8,209) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Belfast?
9.0%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Belfast?
29 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 Belfast work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wellsville (9%, 16 mi), Amity (6%, 8 mi), Cuba (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Belfast walkable?
Belfast is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Belfast 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 Belfast, from the people who make the trip.
More of Belfast
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.