Photo: Benjamin D. Esham (bdesham) · CC BY-SA 4.0College students make up 58% of Geneseo’s residents
Jobs and income earn Geneseo B; getting around on foot earns it A+. Family incomes here are higher than in 83% of U.S. towns. Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 6.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 11.9 in Rochester.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Geneseo stands out on work
Commutes from Geneseo 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 ↓
Geneseo is where the jobs are
Geneseo has 3,548 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Nearly all the work in Geneseo is services
88% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 0% are in factories, building or farms. 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.
The four measures behind Geneseo’s grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Geneseo is better than 61% of U.S. towns, #332 of 758 in New York. Family income holds Geneseo’s grade up ($128,750, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate pulls it down (12.5%, U.S. 11.9%). It also does well on job access by car.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (33% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 12.5%, against 36.6% for all residents. Unemployment (10.2%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($128,750), since student households pull the household median down ($46,589).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Geneseo could be anywhere from C to A.
About 19 minutes each way for Geneseo’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Geneseo workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,336 commuters (the 10% 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.
How many people are in Geneseo by day
On a workday 1,879 residents head out to work, 243 work right here, and 3,305 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,200 people are in Geneseo on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Geneseo is a services town
3,548 jobs are based in Geneseo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Geneseo, 2013 → 2023: 3,273 → 3,548. 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 Geneseo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Geneseo live
Where Geneseo clocks in
13% of workers
10% 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.
The distance from Geneseo to work
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.
Geneseo is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Geneseo is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns, #76 of 758 in New York. Both inputs place Geneseo near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,604 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 82% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 53% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 6.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 88% 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). 6.1% of Geneseo households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Geneseo’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Geneseo ranks: 1,460th of 3,091 U.S. towns of 5,400 to 10,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,458 | Newberry FL | 8,618 | $90K | 9.8% | 2.8% | 6% | B |
| 1,459 | Milan MI | 5,973 | $97K | 10.4% | 5.8% | 9% | B |
| 1,460 | Geneseo NY | 7,759 | $47K | 36.6% | 10.2% | 11% | B |
| 1,461 | Morris Township IL | 7,356 | $74K | 10.4% | 3.4% | 14% | B |
| 1,462 | Bangor Base WA | 6,112 | $80K | 5.4% | 4.4% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,091 | 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 Geneseo, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Work in the towns next to Geneseo
The biggest share goes to York (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Geneseo’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.
- Students. 58% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Geneseo: questions
What is the median household income in Geneseo?
$46,589 (±$15,175) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Geneseo?
36.6% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 12.5%. New York: 14.0%.
How long is the commute from Geneseo?
19 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Geneseo work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Geneseo (13%, 2 mi), Rochester (10%, 27 mi), Henrietta (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Geneseo walkable?
Geneseo is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 12.5 out of 20, and 23% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Geneseo without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 53% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Geneseo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Geneseo
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.