Photo: Jason Zhang · CC BY-SA 3.0Toledo’s household incomes are lower than in 88% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Toledo are C− for jobs and income and A for walkability. 24.3% of residents live below the poverty line (Ohio 13.3%). For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 1.8 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 11.7 in Cleveland.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Toledo’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Toledo is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #894 of 992 in Ohio. Job access by car holds Toledo’s grade up (ahead of 82% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Toledo stays C−.
Who commutes out of Toledo, and who commutes in
On a workday 61,385 residents head out to work, 48,217 work right here, and 66,847 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 (1.05 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 Toledo goes to work
Where Toledo clocks in
4% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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 Toledo
115,064 jobs are based in Toledo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Toledo, 2013 → 2023: 115,056 → 115,064. 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 Toledo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Toledo: about 20 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Toledo workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 109,899 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 far Toledo goes to work
About 18% 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.
In Toledo, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Toledo is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #54 of 993 in Ohio. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.7% 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 118,061 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 99% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 61% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 67% 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). 11.7% of Toledo households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Toledo’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Toledo next to U.S. towns of 184,000 to 356,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Oyster Bay NY | 301,115 | $160K | 3.9% | 4.6% | 19% | A |
| 3 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 91 | Cincinnati OH | 314,367 | $53K | 25.5% | 6.8% | 40% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Akron OH | 189,691 | $48K | 23.3% | 7.8% | 31% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Brownsville TX | 192,957 | $52K | 23.7% | 6.2% | 54% | C− |
| 98 | Augusta GA | 206,559 | $56K | 20.0% | 8.5% | 48% | C− |
| 99 | Toledo OH | 263,423 | $50K | 24.3% | 7.7% | 44% | C− |
| 100 | Baton Rouge LA | 222,795 | $50K | 25.7% | 9.2% | 48% | C− |
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 Toledo, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
16% of Toledo works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Maumee (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Toledo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toledo | – | C− | A | 20 min | $49,724 |
| Washington Township | under 2% | A | B− | 20 min | $71,054 |
| Oregon | 2% | B+ | B | 20 min | $82,197 |
| Maumee | 4% | A | B | 20 min | $80,833 |
| Sylvania Township | 4% | A− | B | 21 min | $105,406 |
| Springfield Township | 2% | B | C | 21 min | $80,694 |
| Ottawa Hills | under 2% | A | B | 21 min | $167,917 |
| Perrysburg Township | 4% | B | C | 20 min | $73,988 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Toledo’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 Toledo: questions
What is the median household income in Toledo?
$49,724 (±$993) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Toledo?
24.3%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Toledo?
20 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Toledo work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Maumee (4%, 8 mi), Sylvania Township (4%, 8 mi), Perrysburg Township (4%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Toledo walkable?
Toledo is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 13.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Toledo without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 61% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Toledo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Toledo
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.