Photo: Roland Penttila · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Ashtabula earn less than those in 93% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Ashtabula is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (B+). Poverty touches 29.8% of residents (Ohio 13.3%). Home is the office for 2% of workers, next to 13% for Ohio as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Ashtabula: the figures worth knowing
Ashtabula trades workers with the towns around it
Ashtabula has about as many jobs (5,979) as working residents (6,682), but they are mostly different people: 5,107 residents leave for work each day while 4,404 people come in. Only 26% of the jobs in Ashtabula are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Few Ashtabula workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 13% across Ohio. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
Why Ashtabula gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Ashtabula’s grade up (ahead of 45% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (11.8%, U.S. 5.2%).
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ashtabula stays D.
A workday in Ashtabula: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 5,107 residents head out to work, 1,575 work right here, and 4,404 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 (0.89 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.
From Ashtabula, about 21 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ashtabula workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,230 commuters (the 2% who work from home are left out). Across Ohio: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
7% of working residents work in Saybrook Township
Where Ashtabula 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.
In Ashtabula, 31% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
5,979 jobs are based in Ashtabula.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ashtabula, 2013 → 2023: 5,818 → 5,979. 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 Ashtabula’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Ashtabula’s workers travel
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most of Ashtabula commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 7,408 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). 11.8% of Ashtabula households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ashtabula’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ashtabula compares with U.S. towns of 12,000 to 24,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Powell OH | 18,269 | $195K | 1.1% | 2.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Hudson OH | 23,085 | $171K | 3.7% | 1.3% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,075 | Homosassa Springs FL | 15,701 | $48K | 20.3% | 8.4% | 7% | D |
| 2,076 | Talladega AL | 14,840 | $44K | 25.6% | 12.6% | 22% | D |
| 2,077 | Ashtabula OH | 17,474 | $44K | 29.8% | 11.8% | 24% | D |
| 2,078 | Portsmouth OH | 17,282 | $35K | 35.4% | 8.2% | 35% | D |
| 2,079 | Dublin GA | 16,565 | $43K | 36.3% | 7.4% | 35% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,103 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Ashtabula, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
15% of Ashtabula works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Saybrook Township (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ashtabula workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashtabula | – | D | B+ | 21 min | $44,120 |
| Edgewood | 5% | C+ | C+ | 22 min | $62,917 |
| Ashtabula Township | 3% | — | — | 21 min | — |
| Saybrook Township | 7% | C− | C | 22 min | $58,434 |
Same-state neighbors only. Ashtabula Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ashtabula’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 Ashtabula: questions
What is the median household income in Ashtabula?
$44,120 (±$3,222) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ashtabula?
29.8%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ashtabula?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ashtabula work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Saybrook Township (7%, 4 mi), Edgewood (5%, 3 mi), Geneva (5%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ashtabula walkable?
Ashtabula is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ashtabula without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ashtabula, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ashtabula
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.