Photo: WeaponizingArchitecture · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Lorain trail those of 89% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 25.2% of residents, next to 13.3% for Ohio as a whole. For jobs and income Lorain is better than 21% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (C+). About one in seven work in Lorain itself; outside it, Elyria draws the most (10%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Lorain
Job access by car holds Lorain’s grade up (ahead of 77% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lorain could be anywhere from C− to C.
Lorain on a workday afternoon
On a workday 22,264 residents head out to work, 3,827 work right here, and 9,751 people come in from elsewhere.
About 53,000 people are in Lorain on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.52 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.
Where Lorain’s working residents head each day
Where Lorain clocks in
10% of workers
8% 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.
What the 13,578 jobs in Lorain are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lorain, 2013 → 2023: 14,372 → 13,578. 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 Lorain’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Lorain: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lorain workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 25,701 commuters (the 7% 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.
How many miles Lorain commutes
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 Lorain, work means a drive
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.7% across Ohio.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 27,547 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). 9.1% of Lorain households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lorain’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Lorain sits among U.S. towns of 46,000 to 88,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Dublin OH | 49,094 | $160K | 3.2% | 2.5% | 15% | A+ |
| 7 | Washington Township OH | 51,915 | $148K | 3.2% | 2.5% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Violet Township OH | 50,908 | $122K | 3.4% | 3.6% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 624 | Delano CA | 52,334 | $67K | 16.0% | 13.9% | 29% | C− |
| 625 | Jacksonville NC | 72,732 | $58K | 12.7% | 7.4% | 32% | C− |
| 626 | Lorain OH | 65,366 | $49K | 25.2% | 6.3% | 15% | C− |
| 627 | Jonesboro AR | 83,296 | $55K | 22.8% | 6.3% | 64% | C− |
| 628 | Center Township IN | 64,861 | $44K | 29.0% | 7.7% | 41% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 661 | Pahrump NV | 47,347 | $62K | 13.7% | 8.5% | 28% | 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 Lorain, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
Work in the towns next to Lorain
The biggest share goes to Amherst (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lorain workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorain | – | C− | C+ | 25 min | $48,685 |
| Sheffield Township | under 2% | B− | C+ | 26 min | $48,433 |
| Sheffield | 2% | A+ | C+ | 25 min | $107,837 |
| Amherst | 5% | B+ | B− | 25 min | $90,725 |
| Elyria Township | under 2% | B | C | 26 min | $62,179 |
| Amherst Township | under 2% | B | C | 26 min | $82,554 |
| Brownhelm Township | under 2% | C+ | C | 28 min | $62,452 |
| Sheffield Lake | under 2% | B− | C | 27 min | $69,632 |
| Vermilion | under 2% | B | C+ | 26 min | $69,701 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lorain’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 Lorain: questions
What is the median household income in Lorain?
$48,685 (±$3,757) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lorain?
25.2%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lorain?
25 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lorain work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Elyria (10%, 6 mi), Cleveland (8%, 26 mi), Avon (5%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lorain walkable?
Lorain is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lorain without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lorain, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lorain
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.