Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Penn Yan has lower unemployment (1.6%) than 89% of U.S. towns
6% of workers have no commute at all; New York has 15%. Jobs and income earn Penn Yan C+; getting around on foot earns it A−. About one in three work in Penn Yan; the top destination outside it is Milo (28%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Penn Yan: the gist
Commutes from Penn Yan are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 146 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Penn Yan works one town over
41% of working residents work in a town that borders Penn Yan: Milo (28%), Benton (8%) and Jerusalem (5%). Next door ↓
Penn Yan is where the jobs are
Penn Yan has 2,974 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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.
Inside Penn Yan’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Penn Yan is better than 42% of U.S. towns, #480 of 758 in New York. Unemployment holds Penn Yan’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($60,190, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Penn Yan could be anywhere from C to B.
How long Penn Yan spends getting to work: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Penn Yan workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,953 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 workday shuffle in and out of Penn Yan
On a workday 1,169 residents head out to work, 521 work right here, and 2,453 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,600 people are in Penn Yan on a workday afternoon, 24% 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 2023, primary jobs.
The towns that send workers to Penn Yan
Where Penn Yan clocks in
Lines 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.
What the 2,974 jobs in Penn Yan are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Penn Yan, 2013 → 2023: 2,853 → 2,974. 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 Penn Yan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Penn Yan goes to work
About 19% 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: Penn Yan
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Penn Yan is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns, #265 of 758 in New York. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 7.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,082 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). 13.4% of Penn Yan households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Penn Yan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Penn Yan next to U.S. towns of 3,700 to 7,100: 2,224th of 3,582 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| 21 | Kings Point NY | 5,710 | $211K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,222 | Erwin NC | 4,956 | $51K | 12.2% | 2.4% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,223 | Warrenton OR | 6,312 | $71K | 7.0% | 4.0% | 23% | C+ |
| 2,224 | Penn Yan NY | 5,272 | $60K | 12.8% | 1.6% | 31% | C+ |
| 2,225 | Washington Township IN | 4,323 | $63K | 13.7% | 2.4% | 22% | C+ |
| 2,226 | Mauston WI | 4,133 | $64K | 18.5% | 1.2% | 30% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,582 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Penn Yan, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Work next door: 41% of Penn Yan’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Milo. Darker towns draw more of Penn Yan’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 Penn Yan: questions
What is the median household income in Penn Yan?
$60,190 (±$10,461) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Penn Yan?
12.8%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Penn Yan?
14 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 Penn Yan work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Milo (28%, 4 mi), Benton (8%, 4 mi), Jerusalem (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Penn Yan walkable?
Penn Yan is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Penn Yan without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Penn Yan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Penn Yan
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.