Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Binghamton trail those of 92% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Binghamton itself; outside it, Union draws the most (13%, 6 miles). The poverty rate is 32.6% (New York 14.0%). Jobs and income earn Binghamton D; getting around on foot earns it A.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Binghamton in brief
Commutes from Binghamton are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 107 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Binghamton works one town over
33% of working residents work in a town that borders Binghamton: Union (13%), Vestal (8%) and Dickinson (7%). Next door ↓
Most Binghamton residents work close to home
66% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. 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.
How Binghamton earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Binghamton is better than 12% of U.S. towns, #718 of 758 in New York. Job access by car holds Binghamton’s grade up (ahead of 70% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Binghamton stays D.
Binghamton’s commute takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Binghamton workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 17,871 commuters (the 9% 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.
Where in the region Binghamton works
About 26% 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 flow of workers through Binghamton
On a workday 11,341 residents head out to work, 4,544 work right here, and 19,031 people come in from elsewhere.
About 54,000 people are in Binghamton on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.48 per resident).
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 places Binghamton commutes to
Where Binghamton clocks in
13% of workers
8% of workers
7% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Binghamton
23,575 jobs are based in Binghamton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Binghamton, 2013 → 2023: 29,399 → 23,575. 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 Binghamton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Binghamton
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 17.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 8.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 19,708 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 10% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 2% 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). 25.9% of Binghamton households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 8% of Binghamton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Binghamton and other U.S. towns of 32,000 to 63,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Arlington OH | 35,893 | $155K | 3.3% | 2.0% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Eastchester NY | 34,015 | $156K | 4.8% | 2.6% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Clifton Park NY | 37,775 | $133K | 2.3% | 2.0% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Valley Stream NY | 40,379 | $133K | 5.5% | 2.8% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 967 | Warren OH | 38,328 | $38K | 31.9% | 9.4% | 18% | D |
| 968 | Harrison Township IN | 49,277 | $41K | 26.1% | 7.4% | 38% | D |
| 969 | Binghamton NY | 46,418 | $46K | 32.6% | 10.2% | 29% | D |
| 970 | Gadsden AL | 33,367 | $40K | 28.1% | 7.2% | 40% | D |
| 971 | Saginaw MI | 42,863 | $39K | 34.0% | 10.1% | 21% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 988 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Binghamton, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
33% of Binghamton works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Binghamton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binghamton | – | D | A | 19 min | $45,578 |
| Dickinson | 7% | B | C+ | 17 min | $77,864 |
| Johnson City | under 2% | C− | A | 17 min | $56,283 |
| Union | 13% | C | A− | 18 min | $61,713 |
| Port Dickinson | under 2% | B− | C+ | 22 min | $69,375 |
| Conklin | 2% | B | B− | 20 min | $66,356 |
| Kirkwood | 3% | C+ | C+ | 18 min | $58,588 |
| Vestal | 8% | B− | A− | 19 min | $83,012 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Union. Darker towns draw more of Binghamton’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 Binghamton: questions
What is the median household income in Binghamton?
$45,578 (±$3,354) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Binghamton?
32.6%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Binghamton?
19 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Binghamton work?
29% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Union (13%, 6 mi), Vestal (8%, 7 mi), Dickinson (7%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Binghamton walkable?
Binghamton is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 18% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Binghamton without a car?
8% of commuters take transit and 26% of households have no car. 2% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Binghamton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Binghamton
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.