Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided · Public domainCanton draws 3,671 commuters a day, with 2.2 jobs for every working resident
Canton has 4,226 jobs, against 1,949 working residents. For jobs and income Canton is better than 12% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (A). About one in four work in Canton; the top destination outside it is Canton (38%, 3 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Canton, in a few figures
Commutes from Canton are quick
The average trip to work takes 13 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 153 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
Canton is where the jobs are
Canton has 4,226 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Canton and Canton trade workers both ways
Canton is the top workplace for Canton residents (38%) and also where the most people who work in Canton come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Nearly all the work in Canton is services
93% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 1% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Canton pay little
26% of the jobs based in Canton pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 31% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
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 the Jobs & income grade adds up in Canton
All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Canton’s grade.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Canton could be anywhere from D− to B.
Commuting from Canton: about 13 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Canton workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,340 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 workday shuffle in and out of Canton
On a workday 1,394 residents head out to work and 555 work right here.
About 9,200 people are in Canton on a workday afternoon, 33% 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.
Where Canton’s workforce comes from
Where Canton clocks in
38% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Canton
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Canton, 2013 → 2023: 4,409 → 4,226. 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 Canton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Canton
About 30% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Canton
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 29.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,794 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). 6.9% of Canton households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Canton’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Canton compares with U.S. towns of 4,800 to 9,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| 16 | Kings Point NY | 5,710 | $211K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,944 | Madisonville TN | 5,428 | $40K | 18.1% | 6.8% | 15% | D |
| 2,945 | Quincy FL | 8,162 | $32K | 42.7% | 4.1% | 13% | D |
| 2,946 | Canton NY | 6,894 | $62K | 19.8% | 6.5% | 28% | D |
| 2,947 | Pauls Valley OK | 6,157 | $50K | 24.4% | 5.2% | 36% | D |
| 2,948 | Livingston TX | 5,386 | $49K | 27.5% | 4.3% | 18% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,229 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Canton, 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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Canton: questions
What is the median household income in Canton?
$62,054 (±$17,394) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Canton?
19.8%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Canton?
13 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 Canton work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Canton (38%, 3 mi), Potsdam (11%, 9 mi), Ogdensburg (5%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Canton walkable?
Canton is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 29% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Canton without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Canton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Canton
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.