Cobblestone Inn · Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 3.0Ridgeway has higher unemployment (5.3%) than 65% of U.S. towns
8% of workers work from home, next to 15% for New York as a whole. Jobs and income earn Ridgeway C+; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in seven work in Ridgeway; the top destination outside it is Shelby (14%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Ridgeway in brief
Commutes from Ridgeway are quick
The average trip to work takes 25 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Ridgeway works one town over
25% of working residents work in a town that borders Ridgeway: Shelby (14%), Albion (7%) and Yates (4%). Next door ↓
Ridgeway makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Ridgeway are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Ridgeway residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 26%. 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.
What’s behind Ridgeway’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ridgeway is better than 35% of U.S. towns, #535 of 758 in New York. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Ridgeway’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ridgeway could be anywhere from C− to B.
A commute of about 25 minutes in Ridgeway
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ridgeway workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,501 commuters (the 8% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 38% of the jobs in Ridgeway
2,094 jobs are based in Ridgeway.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ridgeway, 2013 → 2023: 1,971 → 2,094. 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 Ridgeway’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Ridgeway
On a workday 2,377 residents head out to work, 479 work right here, and 1,615 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,700 people are in Ridgeway on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.73 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Out of Ridgeway to work: where people go
Where Ridgeway clocks in
7% 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.
How far Ridgeway’s workers travel
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.
Driving is how Ridgeway gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ridgeway is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns, #347 of 758 in New York. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,713 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). 7.9% of Ridgeway households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ridgeway’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Ridgeway is 2,318th among 3,306 U.S. towns of 4,500 to 8,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,316 | Creve Coeur IL | 4,816 | $48K | 17.7% | 4.0% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,317 | Littlefield TX | 5,675 | $61K | 14.7% | 2.7% | 18% | C+ |
| 2,318 | Ridgeway NY | 6,429 | $70K | 10.4% | 5.3% | 17% | C+ |
| 2,319 | Oroville East CA | 7,504 | $95K | 8.7% | 12.4% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,320 | Fairview GA | 5,302 | $64K | 13.1% | 4.1% | <1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,306 | 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 Ridgeway, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Bordering towns draw 25% of Ridgeway’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Shelby. Darker towns draw more of Ridgeway’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 Ridgeway: questions
What is the median household income in Ridgeway?
$69,516 (±$8,171) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ridgeway?
10.4%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ridgeway?
25 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ridgeway work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Shelby (14%, 6 mi), Albion (7%, 9 mi), Amherst (5%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ridgeway walkable?
Ridgeway is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ridgeway without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ridgeway, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ridgeway
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.