Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Marathon trail those of 67% of U.S. towns
10.4% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 14.0% for New York as a whole. The two grades for Marathon are C for jobs and income and B for walkability. Home is the office for 6% of workers, where New York as a whole has 15%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Marathon at work: what stands out
Marathon makes and builds things
45% of the jobs based in Marathon are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Marathon residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Marathon are quick
The average trip to work takes 28 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
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; with 857 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Marathon gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Marathon is better than 30% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Marathon’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.4%) is left out: Marathon’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, Marathon could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Marathon works in goods: 45% of its jobs
646 jobs are based in Marathon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Marathon, 2014 → 2024: 709 → 646. 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 Marathon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 28 minutes each way, quicker than most of New York
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Marathon workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 857 commuters (the 6% 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 flow of workers through Marathon
On a workday 772 residents head out to work, 85 work right here, and 561 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Marathon on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.75 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
13% of working residents work in Cortland
Where Marathon clocks in
13% of workers
11% 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 miles Marathon commutes
About 18% 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.
Driving is how Marathon gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Marathon is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 5.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 909 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). 10.7% of Marathon households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Marathon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Marathon is 3,199th of 5,234 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Atlantic Beach NY | 1,723 | $166K | 1.8% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| 8 | Village of the Branch NY | 1,764 | $174K | 1.5% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,197 | Afton WY | 2,256 | $64K | 9.9% | 3.9% | 49% | C |
| 3,198 | Franklin NY | 2,246 | $64K | 12.2% | 3.3% | 8% | C |
| 3,199 | Marathon NY | 1,960 | $64K | 10.4% | 7.4% | 10% | C |
| 3,200 | North Norwich NY | 1,645 | $78K | 12.3% | 3.1% | 1% | C |
| 3,201 | Hunter TN | 1,918 | $52K | 13.7% | 4.1% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Marathon, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Around Marathon: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Marathon workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marathon | – | C | B | 28 min | $64,438 |
| Freetown | under 3% | — | — | 34 min | — |
| Willet | under 3% | — | — | 37 min | — |
| Lapeer | under 3% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Lisle | under 3% | D | C+ | 28 min | $69,375 |
Same-state neighbors only. Freetown, Willet and Lapeer: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Marathon’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 Marathon: questions
What is the median household income in Marathon?
$64,438 (±$6,728) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Marathon?
10.4%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Marathon?
28 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 Marathon work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cortland (13%, 15 mi), Cortlandville (11%, 13 mi), Cincinnatus (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Marathon walkable?
Marathon is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Marathon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Marathon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Marathon
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.