Photo: Andre Carrotflower · CC BY-SA 4.0Where Olean earns its living
6% of workers have no commute at all (New York 15%). Olean grades C for jobs and income and C for walkability. Only 5% work in Olean; the top destination outside it is Olean (25%, 2 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Olean in brief
Olean and Olean trade workers both ways
Olean is the top workplace for Olean residents (25%) and also where the most people who work in Olean come from (19% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Olean are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 107 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 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 760 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Olean’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Olean is better than 26% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Olean’s grade up ($74,583, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (16.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (2.7%) is left out: Olean’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Olean could be anywhere from D to B−.
Where Olean goes to work
Where Olean clocks in
25% 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.
The trip to work from Olean: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Olean workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 680 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.
Who works in Olean, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 725 residents head out to work, 35 work right here, and 935 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,100 people are in Olean on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.28 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
What Olean’s employers do
970 jobs are based in Olean.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Olean, 2013 → 2023: 1,228 → 970. 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 Olean’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Olean works
About 27% 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.
For most of Olean, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Olean is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 4.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 722 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). 9.9% of Olean households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Olean’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Olean ranks: 3,696th of 5,656 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Atlantic Beach NY | 1,723 | $166K | 1.8% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,694 | Allegany NY | 1,615 | $71K | 16.6% | 2.3% | 5% | C |
| 3,695 | Loretto TN | 1,813 | $56K | 8.6% | 0.3% | 10% | C |
| 3,696 | Olean NY | 1,846 | $75K | 16.3% | 2.7% | 5% | C |
| 3,697 | Caldwell OH | 1,866 | $51K | 7.7% | 2.1% | 15% | C |
| 3,698 | North York PA | 2,248 | $64K | 21.2% | 13.6% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Olean, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
The towns next door employ 22% of Olean
The biggest share goes to Allegany (13%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Olean workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olean | – | C | C | 19 min | $74,583 |
| Portville | 9% | C− | C+ | 21 min | $66,250 |
| Hinsdale | under 2% | D | C− | 22 min | $56,146 |
| Allegany | 13% | C | B+ | 20 min | $72,500 |
| Weston Mills | under 2% | — | — | 16 min | — |
| St. Bonaventure | under 2% | — | — | 15 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Weston Mills and St. Bonaventure: Census-designated places inside larger towns, graded as part of them. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Olean’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 Olean: questions
What is the median household income in Olean?
$74,583 (±$19,949) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Olean?
16.3%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Olean?
19 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 Olean work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Olean (25%, 2 mi), Allegany (13%, 6 mi), Portville (9%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Olean walkable?
Olean is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Olean without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Olean, from the people who make the trip.
More of Olean
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.