Grace Episcopal Church · Photo: Doug Kerr · CC BY-SA 2.0With 0.6 jobs for every working resident, most of Middletown works elsewhere
Middletown grades C+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. 7,253 jobs are based in Middletown, and 12,745 of its residents work somewhere. 6% of workers work from home; New York has 15%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Middletown apart on work
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Middletown
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Middletown is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #494 of 758 in New York. Job access by car holds Middletown’s grade up (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (6.6%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Middletown could be anywhere from C to B.
19% of working residents work in Wallkill
Where Middletown clocks in
19% of workers
19% 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.
Who leaves Middletown for work, and who comes in
On a workday 11,360 residents head out to work, 1,385 work right here, and 5,868 people come in from elsewhere.
About 25,000 people are in Middletown on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The kinds of work in Middletown
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Middletown, 2013 → 2023: 7,284 → 7,253. 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 Middletown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Middletown spends getting to work: about 36 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Middletown workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 12,673 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 distance from Middletown to work
About 29% 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: Middletown
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Middletown is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns, #173 of 758 in New York. Both inputs place Middletown 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 13,475 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 44% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 4% 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). 13.9% of Middletown households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 6% of Middletown’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,087th of 1,415: where Middletown ranks among U.S. towns of 21,000 to 41,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Eastchester NY | 34,015 | $156K | 4.8% | 2.6% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Garden City NY | 23,043 | $244K | 3.0% | 3.9% | 10% | A+ |
| 53 | Clifton Park NY | 37,775 | $133K | 2.3% | 2.0% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,085 | Belleville IL | 40,237 | $64K | 14.6% | 6.1% | 20% | C+ |
| 1,086 | La Porte IN | 22,600 | $59K | 16.4% | 3.5% | 31% | C+ |
| 1,087 | Middletown NY | 30,098 | $79K | 13.6% | 6.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,088 | Aiken SC | 33,808 | $77K | 17.0% | 5.4% | 26% | C+ |
| 1,089 | Bell Gardens CA | 37,367 | $62K | 20.0% | 5.9% | 5% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,415 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Middletown, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
19% of Middletown works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Middletown workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middletown | – | C+ | A | 36 min | $79,346 |
| Wallkill | 19% | B− | A− | 31 min | $96,076 |
| Washington Heights | under 2% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| Mechanicstown | under 2% | — | — | 34 min | — |
| Wawayanda | under 2% | B+ | C | 34 min | $143,017 |
Same-state neighbors only. Washington Heights and Mechanicstown: Census-designated places inside larger towns, graded as part of them. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Wallkill. Darker towns draw more of Middletown’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Middletown: questions
What is the median household income in Middletown?
$79,346 (±$8,059) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Middletown?
13.6%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Middletown?
36 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 Middletown work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wallkill (19%, 3 mi), New York City (19%, 60 mi), Goshen (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Middletown walkable?
Middletown is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.1 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Middletown without a car?
6% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. 4% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Middletown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Middletown
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.