Sheldon has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Sheldon has 414 jobs for 923 working residents. For jobs and income Sheldon is better than 26% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (B−). At home: 2% of workers have no commute at all (New York 15%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Sheldon, in a few figures
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Sheldon
Household income holds Sheldon’s grade up ($71,214, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (7.3%, U.S. 5.2%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sheldon could be anywhere from D to B+.
Commuting from Sheldon: about 33 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sheldon workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,057 commuters (the 2% 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 commutes out of Sheldon, and who commutes in
On a workday 855 residents head out to work, 68 work right here, and 346 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Sheldon on a workday afternoon, 22% 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.
9% of working residents work in Warsaw
Where Sheldon clocks in
9% of workers
5% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 33% of the jobs in Sheldon
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sheldon, 2013 → 2023: 336 → 414. 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 Sheldon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Sheldon
About 20% 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.
Few in Sheldon walk, bike or ride to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 4.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,081 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). 4.5% of Sheldon households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sheldon’s commuters take a bus or train.
3,820th of 5,552: where Sheldon ranks among U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,200
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Atlantic Beach NY | 1,723 | $166K | 1.8% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| 8 | Village of the Branch NY | 1,764 | $174K | 1.5% | 3.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 9 | Old Brookville NY | 2,098 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,818 | Eddyville KY | 2,306 | $56K | 8.9% | 2.8% | 14% | C |
| 3,819 | Mecosta Township MI | 2,891 | $61K | 19.1% | 2.8% | 3% | C |
| 3,820 | Sheldon NY | 2,336 | $71K | 11.8% | 7.3% | 7% | C |
| 3,821 | Warren VT | 1,965 | $87K | 15.7% | 2.4% | 31% | C |
| 3,822 | Bushnell FL | 3,157 | $53K | 13.4% | 3.6% | 11% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,552 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Sheldon, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Work in the towns next to Sheldon
The biggest share goes to Orangeville (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sheldon workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheldon | – | C | B− | 33 min | $71,214 |
| Java | under 3% | A− | C+ | 27 min | $95,129 |
| Orangeville | 3% | B | D | 29 min | $85,563 |
| Bennington | under 3% | B+ | D− | 33 min | $89,050 |
| Wales | under 3% | A | C− | 25 min | $88,590 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sheldon’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 Sheldon: questions
What is the median household income in Sheldon?
$71,214 (±$4,610) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sheldon?
11.8%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sheldon?
33 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sheldon work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Warsaw (9%, 12 mi), Aurora (5%, 13 mi), Batavia (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sheldon walkable?
Sheldon is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sheldon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sheldon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sheldon
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.