Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel · CC BY-SA 4.0Horseheads has lower unemployment (2.6%) than 76% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Horseheads itself; outside it, Horseheads draws the most (24%, 3 miles). Jobs and income earn Horseheads B−; getting around on foot earns it B+. Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, next to 15% for New York as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Horseheads: the gist
Commutes from Horseheads are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 123 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
Horseheads and Horseheads trade workers both ways
Horseheads is the top workplace for Horseheads residents (24%) and also where the most people who work in Horseheads come from (20% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Horseheads is where the jobs are
Horseheads has 4,023 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Income, poverty and work: Horseheads’ grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Horseheads is better than 50% of U.S. towns, #415 of 758 in New York. Unemployment holds Horseheads’ grade up; household income pulls it down ($61,223, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Horseheads could be anywhere from C+ to B.
Each way, about 17 minutes from Horseheads
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Horseheads workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,975 commuters (the 7% 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.
Where Horseheads’s workers come from
Where Horseheads clocks in
24% of workers
19% 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.
How many people are in Horseheads by day
On a workday 2,183 residents head out to work, 328 work right here, and 3,695 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,800 people are in Horseheads on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.6 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 2024, primary jobs.
What Horseheads’ employers do
4,023 jobs are based in Horseheads.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Horseheads, 2014 → 2024: 4,237 → 4,023. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Horseheads’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Horseheads’ 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Horseheads is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Horseheads is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns, #345 of 758 in New York. Both inputs place Horseheads 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 3,182 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 11.1% of Horseheads households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Horseheads’ commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Horseheads is 1,863rd among 3,349 U.S. towns of 4,400 to 8,500
| # | 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 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 5% | A+ |
| 16 | Kings Point NY | 5,710 | $211K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,861 | Ulysses KS | 5,524 | $64K | 7.6% | 0.9% | 41% | B− |
| 1,862 | District Heights MD | 5,938 | $87K | 17.6% | 6.8% | <1% | B− |
| 1,863 | Horseheads NY | 6,275 | $61K | 11.8% | 2.6% | 13% | B− |
| 1,864 | Peters Township PA | 4,473 | $77K | 12.4% | 1.5% | 8% | B− |
| 1,865 | Morristown VT | 6,129 | $66K | 9.8% | 1.4% | 29% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,349 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Horseheads, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Next door to Horseheads
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Horseheads workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horseheads | – | B− | B+ | 17 min | $61,223 |
| Horseheads North | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Horseheads North: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Horseheads’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 2024, 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 Horseheads: questions
What is the median household income in Horseheads?
$61,223 (±$1,864) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Horseheads?
11.8%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Horseheads?
17 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Horseheads work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Horseheads (24%, 3 mi), Elmira (19%, 5 mi), Big Flats (6%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Horseheads walkable?
Horseheads is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Horseheads without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Horseheads, from the people who make the trip.
More of Horseheads
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.