Tunnell-West House · Photo: Smallbones · CC0Ocean View’s household incomes are higher than in 69% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 9.8% of residents, next to 10.4% for Delaware as a whole. Jobs and income earn Ocean View B−; getting around on foot earns it B−. Only 5% work in Ocean View itself; outside it, Bethany Beach draws the most (5%, 2 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Ocean View, in a few figures
Ocean View has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Ocean View went from 545 in 2013 to 1,005 in 2023, +84%. The jobs ↓
Ocean View’s workforce skews older
40% of Ocean View’s working residents are 55 or older. That’s about two in five. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Ocean View
59% of Ocean View residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 40% of the jobs based in Ocean View pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 95% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
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 890 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Ocean View’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Ocean View is better than 47% of U.S. towns, #26 of 37 in Delaware. Household income holds Ocean View’s grade up ($91,500, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 22% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.6%) is left out: Ocean View’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Ocean View could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Services make up most of the work in Ocean View
1,005 jobs are based in Ocean View.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ocean View, 2013 → 2023: 545 → 1,005. 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 Ocean View’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Ocean View by day and by night
On a workday 845 residents head out to work, 45 work right here, and 960 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.13 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.
Commuting out of Ocean View: the destinations
Where Ocean View clocks in
5% of workers
4% 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.
About 25 minutes each way for Ocean View’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ocean View workers work from home, vs 15% across Delaware. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 684 commuters (the 18% who work from home are left out). Across Delaware: 84% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Where in the region Ocean View works
About 29% 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.
Most trips from Ocean View start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ocean View is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns, #32 of 37 in Delaware. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.9% across Delaware.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 837 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). 0.9% of Ocean View households have no vehicle (Delaware 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ocean View’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ocean View ranks: 2,369th of 4,562 U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 385 | Greenville DE | 3,713 | $143K | 4.0% | 4.2% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 472 | Townsend DE | 2,985 | $153K | 2.4% | 3.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 619 | Rising Sun-Lebanon DE | 4,163 | $114K | 8.0% | 0.9% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,367 | Williston Highlands FL | 3,666 | $80K | 8.3% | 3.5% | 1% | B− |
| 2,368 | Sneads Ferry NC | 2,728 | $80K | 13.3% | 1.1% | 6% | B− |
| 2,369 | Ocean View DE | 3,107 | $92K | 9.8% | 2.6% | 5% | B− |
| 2,370 | Roosevelt Park MI | 4,121 | $63K | 12.1% | 4.3% | 5% | B− |
| 2,371 | North East NY | 2,990 | $85K | 13.8% | 2.3% | 23% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,562 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Ocean View, the top three, the last and three more from Delaware.
How Ocean View compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Millville (4%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ocean View workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean View | – | B− | B− | 25 min | $91,500 |
| Millville | 4% | B | C+ | 29 min | $99,776 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ocean View’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 Ocean View: questions
What is the median household income in Ocean View?
$91,500 (±$8,687) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $84,954 across Delaware and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ocean View?
9.8%, against 10.4% across Delaware and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ocean View?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Delaware and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ocean View work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bethany Beach (5%, 2 mi), Millville (4%, 2 mi), Dover (4%, 49 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ocean View walkable?
Ocean View is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ocean View without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ocean View, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ocean View
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.