Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Canaan have higher incomes than those in 82% of U.S. towns
33% of workers work from home (New York 15%). 3.4% of residents are in poverty (New York 14.0%). For jobs and income Canaan is better than 67% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Canaan apart on work
Canaan’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Canaan is New York City, 123 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (65) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A lot of Canaan works from home
33% of Canaan workers work from home, against 15% across New York. Time on the road ↓
A longer commute than the towns next door
Canaan averages 31 minutes each way, more than any bordering town (21 to 28 minutes). Next door ↓
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 651 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Canaan’s grade explained
The poverty rate holds Canaan’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 11% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Canaan’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, Canaan could be anywhere from B− to B+.
Short hops and long hauls from Canaan
About 23% 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.
About 31 minutes to work from Canaan
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Canaan workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 591 commuters (the 33% 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.
In and out of Canaan on a workday
On a workday 584 residents head out to work, 67 work right here, and 335 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Canaan on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.62 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.
10% of working residents work in New York City
Where Canaan clocks in
10% of workers
9% 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.
Goods, not services: 30% of the jobs in Canaan
402 jobs are based in Canaan.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Canaan, 2013 → 2023: 468 → 402. 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 Canaan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Canaan walk, bike or ride to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 4.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 885 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.5% of Canaan households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Canaan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Canaan places 1,122nd of 5,397 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,120 | Cook Township PA | 1,836 | $71K | 5.9% | 2.2% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,121 | Port Washington WI | 1,601 | $83K | 10.6% | 2.0% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,122 | Canaan NY | 1,518 | $107K | 3.4% | 4.2% | 10% | B+ |
| 1,123 | Rush Township PA | 1,166 | $92K | 6.0% | 1.6% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,124 | Brookfield Center OH | 1,216 | $61K | 4.2% | 3.5% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,397 | 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 Canaan, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Work in the towns next to Canaan
The biggest share goes to Chatham (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Canaan workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canaan | – | B+ | B | 31 min | $107,313 |
| Chatham | 5% | B | B | 28 min | $107,270 |
| Austerlitz | under 3% | B+ | B− | 21 min | $113,021 |
| New Lebanon | under 3% | C | C+ | 26 min | $75,662 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Canaan’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 Canaan: questions
What is the median household income in Canaan?
$107,313 (±$23,382) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Canaan?
3.4%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Canaan?
31 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 33% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Canaan work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New York City (10%, 123 mi), Albany (9%, 25 mi), Ghent (7%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Canaan walkable?
Canaan is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Canaan without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Canaan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Canaan
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.