Photo: Jared and Corin · CC BY-SA 2.0Earning a living in Poultney
For jobs and income Poultney is better than 28% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns (A). Only 5% stay in Poultney for work; outside it, Rutland is the main destination (16%, 14 miles). Working residents average 31 minutes each way; Vermont averages 24, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Poultney at work: what stands out
Fewer jobs are based in Poultney than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Poultney fell from 698 in 2013 to 286 in 2023, −59%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Poultney workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 31 minutes each way, against 24 across Vermont. Over a year that’s about 238 hours of commuting, 54 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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 430 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Poultney’s grade explained
Household income holds Poultney’s grade up ($70,536, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (12.1%) is left out: Poultney’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Poultney could be anywhere from D to B−.
The kinds of work in Poultney
286 jobs are based in Poultney.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Poultney, 2013 → 2023: 698 → 286. 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 Poultney’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 31 minutes each way for Poultney’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Poultney workers work from home, vs 17% across Vermont. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 331 commuters (the 11% 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.
Who works in Poultney, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 410 residents head out to work, 20 work right here, and 266 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Poultney on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.67 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.
Commuting out of Poultney: the destinations
Where Poultney clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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 far it is to work from Poultney
About 23% 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 Poultney, walking beats the bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 373 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 79% 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 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 53% 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). 4.7% of Poultney households have no vehicle (Vermont 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Poultney’s commuters take a bus or train.
Poultney next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,400: 1,781st of 3,133 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,779 | Seelyville IN | 1,000 | $57K | 10.5% | 2.6% | 2% | C |
| 1,780 | South Corning NY | 1,068 | $59K | 12.4% | 6.4% | 2% | C |
| 1,781 | Poultney VT | 1,072 | $71K | 11.4% | 12.1% | 5% | C |
| 1,782 | Medina Township MI | 1,086 | $72K | 9.2% | 7.3% | 2% | C |
| 1,783 | Wheatland Township MI | 1,342 | $75K | 12.1% | 2.6% | 2% | 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 Poultney, the top three, the last and three more from Vermont.
Around Poultney: the bordering towns
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Poultney workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poultney | – | C | A | 31 min | $70,536 |
| East Poultney | under 3% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. East Poultney: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Poultney’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 Poultney: questions
What is the median household income in Poultney?
$70,536 (±$11,191) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $81,203 across Vermont and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Poultney?
11.4%, against 10.1% across Vermont and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Poultney?
31 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Vermont and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Poultney work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rutland (16%, 14 mi), Poultney (11%, 3 mi), Castleton (7%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Poultney walkable?
Poultney is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 11.0 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Poultney without a car?
1% 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 Poultney, from the people who make the trip.
More of Poultney
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.