Emmanuel Episcopal Church Complex · Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 3.0Norwich has higher unemployment (11.8%) than 97% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn Norwich D; getting around on foot earns it A−. About one in four stay in Norwich for work; outside it, Norwich is the main destination (12%, 2 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Norwich stands out on work
Commutes from Norwich are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 138 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
Norwich is where the jobs are
Norwich has 4,186 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Nearly all the work in Norwich is services
90% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 3% 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.
Income, poverty and work: Norwich’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Norwich is better than 10% of U.S. towns, #727 of 758 in New York. The poverty rate holds Norwich’s grade up (14.2%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Norwich could be anywhere from D to C−.
A commute of about 15 minutes in Norwich
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Norwich workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,513 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.
The daily commute in and out of Norwich
On a workday 1,879 residents head out to work, 700 work right here, and 3,486 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,100 people are in Norwich on a workday afternoon, 25% 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 2023, primary jobs.
Most jobs in Norwich are in services
4,186 jobs are based in Norwich.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Norwich, 2013 → 2023: 4,952 → 4,186. 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 Norwich’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Norwich
Where Norwich clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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 far Norwich goes to work
About 21% 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: Norwich
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,806 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). 17.4% of Norwich households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Norwich’s commuters take a bus or train.
Norwich and other U.S. towns of 4,600 to 8,800
| # | 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% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| 14 | Kings Point NY | 5,710 | $211K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,986 | Mecca CA | 7,184 | $48K | 17.8% | 7.0% | 6% | D |
| 2,987 | Heber Springs AR | 7,323 | $51K | 17.0% | 6.5% | 32% | D |
| 2,988 | Norwich NY | 6,538 | $53K | 14.2% | 11.8% | 27% | D |
| 2,989 | Elkins WV | 6,622 | $44K | 17.3% | 6.5% | 36% | D |
| 2,990 | Springfield Township IL | 5,485 | $40K | 31.3% | 15.1% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,218 | 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 Norwich, 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 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 Norwich: questions
What is the median household income in Norwich?
$53,333 (±$10,161) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Norwich?
14.2%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Norwich?
15 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 Norwich work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Norwich (12%, 2 mi), Syracuse (4%, 47 mi), New York City (3%, 153 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Norwich walkable?
Norwich is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Norwich without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Norwich, from the people who make the trip.
More of Norwich
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.