Photo: Nyttend · Public domainUpper Township’s household incomes are lower than in 90% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 22.3% of residents; Ohio has 13.3%. Jobs and income earn Upper Township D; getting around on foot earns it B. Home is the office for 5% of workers, against 13% across Ohio.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Upper Township stands out on work
Jobs & income in Upper Township: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Upper Township is better than 11% of U.S. towns, #954 of 992 in Ohio. Job access by car holds Upper Township’s grade up (ahead of 34% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($48,548, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Upper Township could be anywhere from D to C−.
20% of working residents work in Ironton
Where Upper Township clocks in
20% of workers
13% of workers
6% 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.
Upper Township on a workday afternoon
On a workday 4,469 residents head out to work, 1,350 work right here, and 3,544 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 (0.84 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.
The kinds of work in Upper Township
4,894 jobs are based in Upper Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Upper Township, 2013 → 2023: 3,847 → 4,894. 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 Upper Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Upper Township: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Upper Township workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,571 commuters (the 5% 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 Upper Township’s workers travel
About 26% 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 Upper Township, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Upper Township is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns, #256 of 993 in Ohio. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.1% 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 5,857 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). 8.8% of Upper Township households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Upper Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Upper Township compares with U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Jerome Township OH | 11,237 | $176K | 0.4% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,120 | McComb MS | 11,697 | $41K | 27.1% | 5.6% | 35% | D |
| 2,121 | Lincoln City OR | 10,117 | $57K | 14.1% | 6.7% | 36% | D |
| 2,122 | Upper Township OH | 13,816 | $49K | 22.3% | 5.9% | 23% | D |
| 2,123 | Marysville CA | 12,738 | $56K | 24.5% | 9.2% | 12% | D |
| 2,124 | Olean NY | 13,508 | $51K | 26.7% | 6.3% | 37% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | 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 Upper Township, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
26% of Upper Township works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to Ironton (20%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Upper Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Township | – | D | B | 22 min | $48,548 |
| Ironton | 20% | D | B | 22 min | $47,648 |
| Hamilton Township | under 2% | C | C− | 23 min | $57,500 |
| Perry Township | under 2% | C | C− | 21 min | $56,484 |
| Coal Grove | 3% | C− | A | 20 min | $61,250 |
| Elizabeth Township | 2% | D | D− | 31 min | $60,708 |
| Lawrence Township | under 2% | D | D− | 25 min | $65,904 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Upper Township’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 Upper Township: questions
What is the median household income in Upper Township?
$48,548 (±$4,312) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Upper Township?
22.3%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Upper Township?
22 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Upper Township work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ironton (20%, 1 mi), Ashland (13%, 6 mi), Huntington (6%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Upper Township walkable?
Upper Township is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Upper Township without a car?
0% 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 Upper Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Upper Township
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.