Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, New York, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Dryden are lower than in 87% of U.S. towns
18.2% of residents are in poverty, next to 14.0% for New York as a whole. Jobs and income earn Dryden D; getting around on foot earns it A−. Only 7% work in Dryden itself; outside it, Ithaca draws the most (20%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Dryden
Dryden’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Dryden is better than 13% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Dryden’s grade up (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($50,435, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Dryden’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, Dryden could be anywhere from D to C.
How long Dryden spends getting to work: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dryden workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 633 commuters (the 21% 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 commute in and out of Dryden
On a workday 693 residents head out to work, 49 work right here, and 736 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.06 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.
Where people from Dryden work
Where Dryden clocks in
20% of workers
17% of workers
12% 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.
What Dryden’s employers do
785 jobs are based in Dryden.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dryden, 2013 → 2023: 1,003 → 785. 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 Dryden’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Dryden’s workers travel
About 19% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Dryden
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dryden is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 6.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 805 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). 15.1% of Dryden households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Dryden’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,656 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500, Dryden comes 4,555th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Atlantic Beach NY | 1,723 | $166K | 1.8% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,553 | Cambridge City IN | 1,730 | $51K | 19.9% | 4.7% | 7% | D |
| 4,554 | Babbitt MN | 1,363 | $56K | 10.5% | 4.8% | 25% | D |
| 4,555 | Dryden NY | 1,820 | $50K | 18.2% | 3.7% | 7% | D |
| 4,556 | Addison NY | 1,541 | $56K | 17.8% | 8.5% | 14% | D |
| 4,557 | Walnut Cove NC | 1,609 | $45K | 18.4% | 4.4% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | 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 Dryden, 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 Dryden: questions
What is the median household income in Dryden?
$50,435 (±$10,526) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dryden?
18.2%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dryden?
22 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dryden work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ithaca (20%, 13 mi), Dryden (17%, 3 mi), Ithaca (12%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dryden walkable?
Dryden is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dryden without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dryden, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dryden
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.