Halsey Valley Grand Army of the Republic Meeting Hall · Photo: Dmadeo · CC BY-SA 3.0Tioga has higher unemployment (10.4%) than 95% of U.S. towns
Only 6% work in Tioga; the top destination outside it is Owego (20%, 9 miles). Jobs and income earn Tioga C−; getting around on foot earns it C−. Working from home is the commute for 8% of workers; New York has 15%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Tioga
Commutes from Tioga are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 92 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Tioga works one town over
31% of working residents work in a town that borders Tioga: Owego (20%), Nichols (7%) and Barton (4%). Next door ↓
Tioga is a place people come home to
There are 469 jobs based in Tioga, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Tioga has about 3,000 people in it, 29% fewer than live here. 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.
What’s behind Tioga’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Tioga’s grade up (11.3%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Tioga could be anywhere from D to B.
About 21 minutes each way for Tioga’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tioga workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,926 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.
Tioga on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,628 residents head out to work, 99 work right here, and 370 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Tioga on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
0.27 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.
The towns that employ Tioga’s residents
Where Tioga clocks in
20% of workers
8% 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 Tioga
469 jobs are based in Tioga.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tioga, 2013 → 2023: 352 → 469. 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 Tioga’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Tioga
About 22% 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.
The commute in Tioga is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tioga is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns, #698 of 758 in New York. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,094 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). 6.7% of Tioga households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Tioga’s commuters take a bus or train.
3,310th of 4,039: where Tioga ranks among U.S. towns of 3,000 to 5,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Lloyd Harbor NY | 3,587 | $250K | 2.1% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Kings Point NY | 5,710 | $211K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | North Hills NY | 5,481 | $173K | 3.0% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,308 | Lee Township MI | 4,075 | $54K | 28.1% | 3.9% | 3% | C− |
| 3,309 | Crestline OH | 4,487 | $52K | 14.4% | 6.6% | 8% | C− |
| 3,310 | Tioga NY | 4,291 | $69K | 11.3% | 10.4% | 6% | C− |
| 3,311 | Wayland NY | 3,665 | $65K | 20.0% | 4.3% | 21% | C− |
| 3,312 | Valley Township OH | 3,580 | $64K | 15.3% | 2.7% | 10% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,039 | 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 Tioga, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Next door is work for 31% of Tioga
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Tioga workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tioga | – | C− | C− | 21 min | $68,523 |
| Owego | 20% | B− | B | 20 min | $86,263 |
| Nichols | 7% | B | C+ | 22 min | $81,591 |
| Owego | under 2% | C | A | 20 min | $60,139 |
| Barton | 4% | C− | C+ | 20 min | $54,799 |
| Candor | under 2% | D | C | 28 min | $49,036 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Owego. Darker towns draw more of Tioga’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 Tioga: questions
What is the median household income in Tioga?
$68,523 (±$20,322) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tioga?
11.3%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tioga?
21 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 Tioga work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Owego (20%, 9 mi), Union (8%, 17 mi), Nichols (7%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tioga walkable?
Tioga is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tioga without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tioga, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tioga
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.