Photo: Ascended Dreamer · CC BY 4.0Work and commuting in Fairlee
About one in seven work in Fairlee itself; outside it, Hartford draws the most (14%, 20 miles). Jobs and income earn Fairlee C−; getting around on foot earns it B. A typical one-way commute lasts 24 minutes, next to 24 for Vermont and 26 for the U.S.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Fairlee, in brief
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Fairlee
On income, poverty and job access, Fairlee is better than 23% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Fairlee’s grade up ($74,760, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.7%) is left out: Fairlee’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, Fairlee could be anywhere from D to C+.
Where Fairlee’s working residents head each day
Where Fairlee clocks in
14% of workers
9% of workers
9% 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.
How many people are in Fairlee by day
On a workday 346 residents head out to work, 58 work right here, and 343 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 (0.99 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.
What the 401 jobs in Fairlee are
401 jobs are based in Fairlee.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairlee, 2013 → 2023: 423 → 401. 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 Fairlee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Fairlee takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairlee workers work from home, vs 17% across Vermont. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 475 commuters (the 15% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Fairlee
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.
Getting around Fairlee: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fairlee is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Fairlee near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 559 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 58% 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). 4.9% of Fairlee households have no vehicle (Vermont 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fairlee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Fairlee comes 2,002nd 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 307 | Bolton VT | 1,277 | $111K | 2.9% | 1.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 405 | Cornwall VT | 1,290 | $115K | 0.8% | 7.4% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 523 | West Windsor VT | 1,355 | $109K | 3.7% | 3.4% | 5% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,000 | Truman MN | 1,059 | $61K | 10.9% | 1.4% | 12% | C− |
| 2,001 | Jackson Township OH | 1,062 | $64K | 9.0% | 2.3% | 1% | C− |
| 2,002 | Fairlee VT | 1,048 | $75K | 14.7% | 0.7% | 14% | C− |
| 2,003 | Butte Valley CA | 1,087 | $98K | 31.2% | 0.0% | 5% | C− |
| 2,004 | Cambridge NE | 1,066 | $62K | 7.9% | 0.0% | 15% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Fairlee, the top three, the last and three more from Vermont.
Around Fairlee: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Bradford (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Fairlee’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 Fairlee: questions
What is the median household income in Fairlee?
$74,760 (±$10,174) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $81,203 across Vermont and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairlee?
14.7%, against 10.1% across Vermont and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairlee?
24 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Vermont and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairlee work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hartford (14%, 20 mi), Hanover (9%, 14 mi), Lebanon (9%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fairlee walkable?
Fairlee is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairlee without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fairlee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairlee
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.