58% of New Paltz’s residents are college students
A typical one-way commute lasts 21 minutes (New York 33, U.S. 26). Jobs and income earn New Paltz C+; getting around on foot earns it A. About one in ten stay in New Paltz for work; outside it, New York City is the main destination (21%, 76 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in New Paltz: the gist
New Paltz’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside New Paltz is New York City, 76 miles away as the crow flies. 21% of working residents (484) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from New Paltz are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 92 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
Nearly all the work in New Paltz is services
95% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 1% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
New Paltz is where the jobs are
New Paltz has 4,190 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
40% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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.
What’s behind New Paltz’s Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, New Paltz is better than 39% of U.S. towns, #508 of 758 in New York. Job access by car holds New Paltz’s grade up (ahead of 60% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (18.5%, U.S. 11.9%).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (37% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 18.5%, against 38.2% for all residents. Unemployment (10.7%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($90,976), since student households pull the household median down ($52,774).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, New Paltz could be anywhere from C− to A.
The distance from New Paltz to work
About 40% 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.
The trip to work from New Paltz: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of New Paltz workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,572 commuters (the 19% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
4,190 jobs are based in New Paltz.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in New Paltz, 2014 → 2024: 4,109 → 4,190. 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 New Paltz’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of New Paltz, and who commutes in
On a workday 2,084 residents head out to work, 251 work right here, and 3,939 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in New Paltz on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.8 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.
Commuting in to New Paltz: where workers come from
Where New Paltz clocks in
21% 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.
New Paltz is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, New Paltz is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns, #142 of 758 in New York. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 34.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 8.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,183 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). 24.7% of New Paltz households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of New Paltz’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,893 U.S. towns of 6,100 to 11,700, New Paltz comes 2,008th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 110 | East Rockaway NY | 10,096 | $125K | 2.6% | 3.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,006 | Clinton IL | 6,781 | $62K | 14.5% | 3.7% | 28% | C+ |
| 2,007 | Hastings MI | 7,490 | $58K | 12.5% | 3.7% | 21% | C+ |
| 2,008 | New Paltz NY | 8,689 | $53K | 38.2% | 10.7% | 11% | C+ |
| 2,009 | Swanton VT | 6,894 | $81K | 13.0% | 3.8% | 15% | C+ |
| 2,010 | North Weeki Wachee FL | 8,979 | $65K | 11.7% | 4.0% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,893 | 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 New Paltz, 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 2024, 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 New Paltz: questions
What is the median household income in New Paltz?
$52,774 (±$20,626) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in New Paltz?
38.2% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 18.5%. New York: 14.0%.
How long is the commute from New Paltz?
21 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in New Paltz work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New York City (21%, 76 mi), New Paltz (19%, 1 mi), Kingston (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is New Paltz walkable?
New Paltz is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 35% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around New Paltz without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 25% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from New Paltz, from the people who make the trip.
More of New Paltz
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.