Every workday, about 1,600 people come to North Canaan for work, and 1,000 head out
About one in 4 of North Canaan’s working residents works in town. The top destinations are Salisbury (9%), Sheffield (6%) and Great Barrington (3%). Half commute less than 12 miles.
What kind of work town is North Canaan?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
North Canaan makes things: 43% of its jobs are in goods
1,983 jobs are based in North Canaan. Here is what they are, next to the jobs North Canaan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in North Canaan, 2013 → 2023: 2,022 → 1,983. 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.
9% of working residents work in Salisbury
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where North Canaan clocks in
9% 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.
About 22 minutes each way, quicker than most of Connecticut
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of North Canaan workers work from home, vs 16% across Connecticut. Their commute is the hallway.
North Canaan fills up on a workday
On a workday 1,043 residents head out to work, 415 work right here, and 1,568 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,700 people are in North Canaan on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.36 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.
Half of North Canaan commutes less than 12 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 19% 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.
12% of North Canaan works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Salisbury (9%). Darker towns draw more of North Canaan’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Every worker, home to work. The Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.
- Where the employer says. A job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.
- Two surveys. Flows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: the Census American Community Survey.
- Straight lines. Distances are as the crow flies between home and work. Roads, rivers and traffic make the real trip longer.
More of North Canaan
Commuter talk
Getting to work from North Canaan, from the people who make the trip.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
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.