Trinity Episcopal Church · Photo: Wabbit98 · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Groton top those of 68% of U.S. towns
4.3% of residents are in poverty; South Dakota has 11.9%. Jobs and income earn Groton B; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in seven work in Groton; the top destination outside it is Aberdeen (38%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Groton
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Groton
On income, poverty and job access, Groton is better than 58% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Groton’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.1%) is left out: Groton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Groton could be anywhere from C to B+.
The towns that employ Groton’s residents
Where Groton clocks in
Lines 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.
How many people are in Groton by day
On a workday 554 residents head out to work, 77 work right here, and 356 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Groton on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.69 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.
Jobs in Groton: what the 433 are
433 jobs are based in Groton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Groton, 2013 → 2023: 511 → 433. 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 Groton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Groton, about 17 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Groton workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 821 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across South Dakota: 85% 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 Groton goes to work
About 25% 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.
The commute in Groton is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Groton is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 853 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). 3.2% of Groton households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Groton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800, Groton comes 1,454th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 154 | Wall Lake Township SD | 1,210 | $129K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 196 | Jefferson Township SD | 1,207 | $196K | 2.0% | 3.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 200 | Crooks SD | 1,415 | $99K | 0.5% | 1.4% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,452 | Avon MN | 1,777 | $92K | 9.8% | 2.6% | 11% | B |
| 1,453 | Manchester NY | 1,628 | $66K | 7.2% | 0.0% | 4% | B |
| 1,454 | Groton SD | 1,337 | $90K | 4.3% | 1.1% | 12% | B |
| 1,455 | Marion Township MI | 1,653 | $99K | 5.4% | 2.4% | 3% | B |
| 1,456 | Palmer Township OH | 1,177 | $82K | 5.1% | 4.3% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Groton, the top three, the last and three more from South Dakota.
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 Groton: questions
What is the median household income in Groton?
$89,861 (±$24,523) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Groton?
4.3%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Groton?
17 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Groton work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Aberdeen (38%, 18 mi), Sioux Falls (5%, 148 mi), Warner (3%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Groton walkable?
Groton is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Groton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Groton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Groton
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.