Photo: John Phelan · CC BY-SA 4.0Dover draws 1,010 commuters a day, with 2.2 jobs for every working resident
Dover grades C− for jobs and income and A for walkability. Employers in Dover report 1,216 jobs for 562 working residents. Measured by household income, Dover is behind 85% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Dover: the figures worth knowing
Many jobs in Dover pay little
49% of the jobs based in Dover pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
Dover is where the jobs are
Dover has 1,216 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Nearly all the work in Dover is services
91% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 4% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 562 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Dover’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Dover is better than 20% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Dover’s grade up (7.3%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 5% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.8%) is left out: Dover’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, Dover could be anywhere from D to C+.
In Dover, services account for most jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dover, 2013 → 2023: 989 → 1,216. 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 Dover’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Dover for work, and who comes in
On a workday 356 residents head out to work and 206 work right here.
About 2,500 people are in Dover on a workday afternoon, 36% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Dover: where workers come from
Where Dover clocks in
12% of workers
6% of workers
3% 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.
Commuting from Dover: about 22 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dover workers work from home, vs 17% across Vermont. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 575 commuters (the 23% who work from home are left out). Across Vermont: 82% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Dover
About 24% 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.
Dover 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, Dover is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.2% across Vermont, on an EPA index of 8.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 749 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 42% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 57% 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). 3.4% of Dover households have no vehicle (Vermont 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Dover’s commuters take a bus or train.
Dover places 4,074th of 5,656 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 703 | South Hero VT | 1,726 | $127K | 3.5% | 5.9% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 770 | Dummerston VT | 1,859 | $102K | 4.5% | 1.6% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 889 | Westford VT | 2,072 | $113K | 2.5% | 4.0% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,072 | Johnston Township OH | 1,718 | $61K | 28.4% | 4.1% | 4% | C− |
| 4,073 | Susquehanna Township PA | 1,840 | $52K | 10.3% | 4.7% | 2% | C− |
| 4,074 | Dover VT | 1,827 | $52K | 7.3% | 2.8% | 37% | C− |
| 4,075 | Winnebago MN | 1,383 | $60K | 11.1% | 7.3% | 16% | C− |
| 4,076 | Blossburg PA | 1,496 | $69K | 13.2% | 5.1% | 7% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Dover, the top three, the last and three more from Vermont.
Work next door: 16% of Dover’s workers
The biggest share goes to Wilmington (12%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Dover workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dover | – | C− | A | 22 min | $52,313 |
| Newfane | 2% | C− | C+ | 27 min | $66,719 |
| Wilmington | 12% | C+ | A | 21 min | $70,000 |
| Marlboro | under 1% | C+ | B | 17 min | $77,135 |
| Wardsboro | under 1% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Stratton | 2% | — | — | 33 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Wardsboro and Stratton: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Dover’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 Dover: questions
What is the median household income in Dover?
$52,313 (±$6,562) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $81,203 across Vermont and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dover?
7.3%, against 10.1% across Vermont and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dover?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Vermont and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dover work?
37% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (12%, 6 mi), Brattleboro (6%, 13 mi), Bennington (3%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dover walkable?
Dover is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dover without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dover, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dover
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.