Photo: Ken Winters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · Public domainHousehold incomes in Dunkirk are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Dunkirk is better than 17% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−). The poverty rate is 24.3% (New York 14.0%). At home: 4% of workers have no commute at all (New York 15%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Dunkirk in brief
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Dunkirk
Unemployment holds Dunkirk’s grade up (4.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dunkirk could be anywhere from D to C.
The trip to work from Dunkirk: 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 Dunkirk workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,938 commuters (the 4% 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.
Who leaves Dunkirk for work, and who comes in
On a workday 3,058 residents head out to work, 1,356 work right here, and 2,640 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 (0.91 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.
10% of working residents work in Pomfret
Where Dunkirk clocks in
7% of workers
5% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 33% of the jobs in Dunkirk
3,996 jobs are based in Dunkirk.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dunkirk, 2013 → 2023: 4,124 → 3,996. 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 Dunkirk’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Dunkirk
About 15% 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: Dunkirk
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,168 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). 13.2% of Dunkirk households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Dunkirk’s commuters take a bus or train.
Dunkirk is 2,118th of 2,354 U.S. towns of 9,000 to 17,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Floral Park NY | 16,105 | $150K | 3.0% | 3.1% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 87 | East Rockaway NY | 10,096 | $125K | 2.6% | 3.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 90 | North Castle NY | 12,360 | $208K | 3.8% | 3.1% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,116 | Detroit Lakes MN | 10,019 | $63K | 16.6% | 6.8% | 56% | C− |
| 2,117 | Payson AZ | 16,693 | $68K | 11.0% | 7.1% | 33% | C− |
| 2,118 | Dunkirk NY | 12,326 | $53K | 24.3% | 4.7% | 31% | C− |
| 2,119 | Darby PA | 10,666 | $40K | 30.0% | 18.5% | 2% | C− |
| 2,120 | Alamosa CO | 9,849 | $50K | 15.9% | 4.4% | 45% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,354 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Dunkirk, 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 Dunkirk: questions
What is the median household income in Dunkirk?
$53,299 (±$5,955) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dunkirk?
24.3%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dunkirk?
19 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dunkirk work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pomfret (10%, 5 mi), Dunkirk (7%, 1 mi), Jamestown (5%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dunkirk walkable?
Dunkirk is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dunkirk without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dunkirk, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dunkirk
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.