Photo: Dblcut3 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Youngstown earn less than those in 98% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 37.3% of residents, where Ohio as a whole has 13.3%. Youngstown grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in five work in Youngstown itself; outside it, Boardman Township draws the most (13%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Youngstown
Why Youngstown gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Youngstown is better than 11% of U.S. towns, #953 of 992 in Ohio. Job access by car holds Youngstown’s grade up (ahead of 76% 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, Youngstown stays D.
Jobs in Youngstown: what the 25,227 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Youngstown, 2013 → 2023: 29,621 → 25,227. 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 Youngstown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Youngstown, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 15,170 residents head out to work, 4,126 work right here, and 21,101 people come in from elsewhere.
About 65,000 people are in Youngstown on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.31 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 places Youngstown commutes to
Where Youngstown clocks in
13% of workers
5% of workers
2% 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.
About 20 minutes each way, quicker than most of Ohio
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Youngstown workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 18,686 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.
Half of Youngstown commutes less than 7 miles
About 20% 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.
Youngstown is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Youngstown is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #112 of 993 in Ohio. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.7% across Ohio, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 20,138 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). 16.8% of Youngstown households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Youngstown’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Youngstown sits among U.S. towns of 41,000 to 79,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Keller TX | 46,078 | $175K | 3.4% | 2.7% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Dublin OH | 49,094 | $160K | 3.2% | 2.5% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Washington Township OH | 51,915 | $148K | 3.2% | 2.5% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Liberty Township OH | 45,723 | $148K | 3.8% | 2.8% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 741 | Saginaw MI | 42,863 | $39K | 34.0% | 10.1% | 21% | D |
| 742 | Marion Township OH | 43,499 | $50K | 20.4% | 8.8% | 33% | D |
| 743 | Youngstown OH | 58,832 | $34K | 37.3% | 11.9% | 21% | D |
| 744 | Hattiesburg MS | 48,802 | $46K | 28.3% | 8.7% | 56% | D |
| 745 | Monroe LA | 46,860 | $41K | 35.9% | 10.2% | 52% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 749 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Youngstown, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
Work next door: 20% of Youngstown’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Youngstown workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Youngstown | – | D | A− | 20 min | $34,408 |
| Liberty Township | 2% | C+ | B− | 20 min | $57,269 |
| Girard | under 2% | C | B+ | 18 min | $52,550 |
| Campbell | under 2% | D | C− | 22 min | $42,909 |
| Boardman Township | 13% | B− | B− | 22 min | $66,619 |
| Austintown | 5% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Austintown Township | under 2% | C+ | C+ | 22 min | $56,628 |
| Coitsville Township | under 2% | C+ | C− | 33 min | $58,750 |
| Struthers | under 2% | C+ | B− | 22 min | $53,447 |
| Hubbard Township | under 2% | B− | C | 20 min | $56,581 |
Same-state neighbors only. Austintown: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Boardman Township. Darker towns draw more of Youngstown’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 Youngstown: questions
What is the median household income in Youngstown?
$34,408 (±$2,298) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Youngstown?
37.3%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Youngstown?
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 Youngstown work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Boardman Township (13%, 5 mi), Austintown (5%, 5 mi), Niles (2%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Youngstown walkable?
Youngstown is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Youngstown without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Youngstown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Youngstown
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.