Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Jobs and the daily commute in Waterville
A typical one-way commute lasts 22 minutes; New York averages 33, the U.S. 26. Jobs and income earn Waterville B; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in ten stay in Waterville for work; outside it, Utica is the main destination (12%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Waterville
Waterville’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Waterville is better than 58% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Waterville’s grade. It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (0.7%) is left out: Waterville’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Waterville could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
The trip to work from Waterville: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Waterville workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 789 commuters (the 15% 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 works in Waterville, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 609 residents head out to work, 73 work right here, and 603 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.99 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where the trip to work from Waterville ends
Where Waterville clocks in
12% of workers
12% of workers
9% 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.
31% of the jobs in Waterville make or build things
676 jobs are based in Waterville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Waterville, 2013 → 2023: 665 → 676. 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 Waterville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Waterville
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.
For most of Waterville, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Waterville is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 926 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). 10.8% of Waterville households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Waterville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Waterville next to U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000: 1,756th of 6,308 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 5 | Saddle Rock NY | 1,008 | $176K | 0.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,754 | New London IA | 1,850 | $78K | 8.4% | 2.6% | 8% | B |
| 1,755 | Arnolds Park IA | 1,198 | $87K | 6.0% | 0.5% | 7% | B |
| 1,756 | Waterville NY | 1,491 | $82K | 8.1% | 0.7% | 11% | B |
| 1,757 | Ridott Township IL | 1,307 | $83K | 8.6% | 2.4% | 4% | B |
| 1,758 | La Valle WI | 1,443 | $86K | 4.7% | 0.7% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Waterville, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
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 Waterville: questions
What is the median household income in Waterville?
$82,273 (±$13,080) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Waterville?
8.1%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Waterville?
22 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Waterville work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Utica (12%, 14 mi), Sangerfield (12%, 3 mi), New Hartford (9%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Waterville walkable?
Waterville is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Waterville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Waterville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Waterville
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.