Photo: VTviking · CC BY-SA 3.0How Townshend works: jobs, income and commuting
28% of workers work from home, next to 17% for Vermont as a whole. For jobs and income Townshend is better than 37% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in ten stay in Townshend for work; outside it, Brattleboro is the main destination (14%, 15 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Townshend: the figures worth knowing
Inside Townshend’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Townshend’s grade up (8.1%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 9% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.8%) is left out: Townshend’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, Townshend could be anywhere from D to B.
From Townshend, about 25 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Townshend workers work from home, vs 17% across Vermont. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 607 commuters (the 28% 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 Townshend, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 426 residents head out to work, 53 work right here, and 551 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Townshend on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.26 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.
Out of Townshend to work: where people go
Where Townshend clocks in
14% of workers
5% 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.
What Townshend’s employers do
604 jobs are based in Townshend.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Townshend, 2013 → 2023: 497 → 604. 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 Townshend’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Townshend, by distance
About 15% 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 Townshend, most people drive to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.2% across Vermont, 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 843 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 5.7% of Townshend households have no vehicle (Vermont 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Townshend’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Townshend is 2,328th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 529 | Bolton VT | 1,277 | $111K | 2.9% | 1.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 679 | Cornwall VT | 1,290 | $115K | 0.8% | 7.4% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 873 | West Windsor VT | 1,355 | $109K | 3.7% | 3.4% | 5% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,326 | Mountain View WY | 1,264 | $98K | 10.3% | 4.4% | 20% | C+ |
| 2,327 | Franklin Township IN | 1,293 | $59K | 5.0% | 1.4% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,328 | Townshend VT | 1,259 | $79K | 8.1% | 1.8% | 11% | C+ |
| 2,329 | Rock Hall MD | 1,208 | $75K | 7.6% | 1.3% | 17% | C+ |
| 2,330 | Edgar WI | 1,425 | $63K | 9.7% | 1.9% | 5% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Townshend, the top three, the last and three more from Vermont.
How Townshend compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Grafton (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Townshend workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Townshend | – | C+ | B+ | 25 min | $78,750 |
| Wardsboro | under 3% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Windham | under 3% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Grafton | 5% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Athens | under 3% | — | — | 36 min | — |
| Newfane | 4% | C− | C+ | 27 min | $66,719 |
| Jamaica | under 3% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Wardsboro, Windham, Grafton, Athens and Jamaica: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Townshend’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 Townshend: questions
What is the median household income in Townshend?
$78,750 (±$28,645) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $81,203 across Vermont and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Townshend?
8.1%, against 10.1% across Vermont and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Townshend?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Vermont and 26 nationally. 28% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Townshend work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Brattleboro (14%, 15 mi), Rockingham (5%, 11 mi), Springfield (5%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Townshend walkable?
Townshend is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Townshend without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Townshend, from the people who make the trip.
More of Townshend
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.