Valcour Bay · Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Peru works elsewhere
The two grades for Peru are B+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. Peru has 1,183 jobs, and 2,915 of its residents work somewhere. Measured by household income, Peru is ahead of 78% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Peru, in a few figures
Why Peru gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Peru is better than 66% of U.S. towns, #289 of 758 in New York. Unemployment holds Peru’s grade up (1.6%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Peru could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
How long Peru spends getting to work: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Peru workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,172 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.
Peru on a workday afternoon
On a workday 2,506 residents head out to work, 409 work right here, and 774 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,900 people are in Peru on a workday afternoon, 26% 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.
24% of working residents work in Plattsburgh
Where Peru clocks in
24% of workers
23% of workers
2% 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 kinds of work in Peru
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Peru, 2013 → 2023: 1,155 → 1,183. 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 Peru’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Peru
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.
Most of Peru commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Peru is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns, #454 of 758 in New York. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 5.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,532 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). 5.7% of Peru households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Peru’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Peru is 1,300th among 3,201 U.S. towns of 4,700 to 9,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| 15 | Kings Point NY | 5,710 | $211K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,298 | Mount Carmel OH | 4,890 | $70K | 13.7% | 1.7% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,299 | Rapid Valley SD | 6,975 | $83K | 4.5% | 4.3% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,300 | Peru NY | 6,669 | $102K | 8.9% | 1.6% | 14% | B+ |
| 1,301 | Summit Township PA | 7,539 | $74K | 9.8% | 2.3% | 12% | B+ |
| 1,302 | Sangaree SC | 8,681 | $78K | 15.4% | 2.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,201 | 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 Peru, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Peru and its neighbors: 26% work next door
The biggest share goes to Plattsburgh (23%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Peru workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peru | – | B+ | B | 21 min | $101,771 |
| Au Sable | 2% | C | C− | 26 min | $95,069 |
| Schuyler Falls | 1% | A− | D | 16 min | $103,977 |
| Plattsburgh | 23% | B− | B− | 19 min | $71,546 |
| Black Brook | under 1% | C | D | 32 min | $67,852 |
| Saranac | under 1% | B− | D− | 22 min | $82,500 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Peru’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 Peru: questions
What is the median household income in Peru?
$101,771 (±$22,458) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Peru?
8.9%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Peru?
21 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 Peru work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Plattsburgh (24%, 9 mi), Plattsburgh (23%, 8 mi), North Elba (2%, 35 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Peru walkable?
Peru is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Peru without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Peru, from the people who make the trip.
More of Peru
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.