95% of Middle Island’s working residents leave town for work
Most working residents leave Middle Island for work: only 5% work in town. The top destinations are Brookhaven (33%), New York (15%) and Islip (15%). Half commute less than 15 miles.
What kind of work town is Middle Island?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
33% of working residents work in Brookhaven
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Middle Island clocks in
33% of workers
15% of workers
15% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Middle Island quiets down on a workday
On a workday 4,564 residents head out to work, 219 work right here, and 2,411 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,900 people are in Middle Island on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
0.55 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.
Half of Middle Island commutes less than 15 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 18% 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.
What the 2,630 jobs in Middle Island are
2,630 jobs are based in Middle Island. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Middle Island’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Middle Island, 2013 → 2023: 2,575 → 2,630. 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.
About 32 minutes each way, about the NY average
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Middle Island workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Middle Island and the towns next door
Darker towns draw more of Middle Island’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 Middle Island
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Middle Island, 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.