Work & commute · Bear

Work & commute in Bear, DE

Most working residents leave Bear for work: only 3% work in town. The top destinations are Wilmington (10%), New Castle (4%) and Newark (4%). Half commute less than 9 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

336 of 10,442 working residents

Typical commute

9 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

24 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

15%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 10,106 Bear residents head out of town to work, 336 work right here, and 3,451 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Bear.

10,106live here, work elsewhere

336live and work here

3,451work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Bear goes to work

Wilmington11.3 mi away

10%998

New Castle7 mi away

4%458

Newark5.8 mi away

4%367

Philadelphia, PA39.6 mi away

3%340

Bear (in town)right here

3%336

Dover32.8 mi away

3%302

Glasgow3.7 mi away

2%211

Middletown12.4 mi away

2%205

Brookside3.5 mi away

2%185

Elkton, MD7.6 mi away

1%123

Everywhere elseother towns and states

66%6,917

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far Bear commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

56%

25%

12%

56%Under 10 mi

25%10–24 mi

12%25–50 mi

8%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Bear is a commuter town

0.36jobs per working resident

A commuter town

0.36 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.

The jobs

What the jobs in Bear are

3,787 jobs are based in Bear. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bear’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Bear

3,787 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)4%

Trade, transport & utilities24%

Services (health, schools, offices…)72%

$1,250 a month or less17%

$1,251–$3,333 a month28%

Over $3,333 a month55%

Jobs Bear residents hold

10,442 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)11%

Trade, transport & utilities22%

Services (health, schools, offices…)67%

$1,250 a month or less13%

$1,251–$3,333 a month25%

Over $3,333 a month62%

+57%

Jobs based in Bear, 2013 → 2023: 2,415 → 3,787. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe 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 saysA 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 surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.