Photo: Theedster123 at English Wikipedia · Public domainWilmington has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.6 for each
Jobs and income earn Wilmington B−; getting around on foot earns it B−. Wilmington has 250 jobs, and 454 of its residents work somewhere. Only 6% work in Wilmington; the top destination outside it is North Elba (26%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Wilmington apart on work
Why Wilmington gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Wilmington is better than 50% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Wilmington’s grade up (4.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Wilmington’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, Wilmington could be anywhere from C to B+.
A workday in Wilmington: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 427 residents head out to work, 27 work right here, and 223 people come in from elsewhere.
About 980 people are in Wilmington on a workday afternoon, 17% 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 2024, primary jobs.
Where Wilmington goes to work
Where Wilmington clocks in
26% of workers
20% of workers
7% 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 Wilmington
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wilmington, 2014 → 2024: 157 → 250. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Wilmington’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 34 minutes each way for Wilmington’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wilmington workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 594 commuters (the 14% 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.
Half of Wilmington commutes less than 17 miles
About 21% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most of Wilmington commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wilmington is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 5.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 690 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). 11.3% of Wilmington households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Wilmington’s commuters take a bus or train.
Wilmington is 1,432nd of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Saddle Rock NY | 1,008 | $176K | 0.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,430 | Highpoint OH | 1,132 | $47K | 9.5% | 10.5% | 0% | B− |
| 1,431 | Ladd IL | 1,384 | $67K | 6.4% | 2.5% | 2% | B− |
| 1,432 | Wilmington NY | 1,182 | $82K | 4.0% | 0.0% | 6% | B− |
| 1,433 | Fairfield Township OH | 1,096 | $74K | 2.7% | 1.8% | <1% | B− |
| 1,434 | China Spring TX | 1,126 | $71K | 9.0% | 0.0% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Wilmington, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Bordering towns draw 33% of Wilmington’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Wilmington workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmington | – | B− | B− | 34 min | $82,344 |
| Jay | under 2% | B− | C− | 28 min | $72,380 |
| Black Brook | under 2% | C | D | 32 min | $67,852 |
| St. Armand | 7% | C+ | C | 21 min | $81,221 |
| North Elba | 26% | B− | A | 15 min | $72,843 |
| Keene | under 2% | B | B+ | 33 min | $93,542 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to North Elba. Darker towns draw more of Wilmington’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 2024, 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 Wilmington: questions
What is the median household income in Wilmington?
$82,344 (±$25,433) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wilmington?
4.0%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wilmington?
34 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wilmington work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are North Elba (26%, 14 mi), Harrietstown (20%, 19 mi), St. Armand (7%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Wilmington walkable?
Wilmington is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wilmington without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wilmington, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wilmington
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.