Photo: Skye Marthaler · CC BY-SA 4.0Mary Esther has higher unemployment (5.6%) than 69% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Mary Esther B; getting around on foot earns it B. Working from home is the commute for 7% of workers, where Florida as a whole has 16%. The average commute takes 25 minutes each way; Florida averages 28, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Mary Esther: the gist
Fewer jobs are based in Mary Esther than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Mary Esther fell from 2,578 in 2013 to 1,291 in 2023, −50%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
35% of the jobs based in Mary Esther are held by workers 29 or younger, against 24% of Mary Esther’s own working residents. 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.
How Mary Esther earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Mary Esther is better than 55% of U.S. towns, #293 of 638 in Florida. The poverty rate holds Mary Esther’s grade up (6.3%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mary Esther could be anywhere from C to A.
What work there is in Mary Esther: 1,291 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mary Esther, 2013 → 2023: 2,578 → 1,291. 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 Mary Esther’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 1,636 residents head out to work, 38 work right here, and 1,253 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 (0.77 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.
25% of working residents work in Fort Walton Beach
Where Mary Esther clocks in
25% of workers
9% 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 Mary Esther’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 Mary Esther workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,801 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Mary Esther
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.
Getting around Mary Esther: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mary Esther is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns, #363 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.6% across Florida.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,945 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.3% of Mary Esther households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Mary Esther’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,865th of 4,023: where Mary Esther ranks among U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Bay Hill FL | 4,512 | $128K | 0.7% | 1.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Geneva FL | 3,441 | $133K | 0.6% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 80 | Windermere FL | 3,344 | $178K | 1.3% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,863 | Upper Pittsgrove Township NJ | 3,545 | $86K | 8.0% | 8.0% | 9% | B |
| 1,864 | Randolph VT | 4,958 | $77K | 7.7% | 2.3% | 36% | B |
| 1,865 | Mary Esther FL | 4,093 | $77K | 6.3% | 5.6% | 2% | B |
| 1,866 | West Brookfield MA | 3,947 | $96K | 8.5% | 5.8% | 10% | B |
| 1,867 | Forest Township MI | 4,354 | $71K | 6.4% | 3.7% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,023 | 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 Mary Esther, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Work next door: 25% of Mary Esther’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mary Esther workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mary Esther | – | B | B | 25 min | $76,890 |
| Fort Walton Beach | 25% | B− | B+ | 23 min | $68,538 |
| Hurlburt Field | under 2% | B | B− | 15 min | $61,731 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Fort Walton Beach. Darker towns draw more of Mary Esther’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 Mary Esther: questions
What is the median household income in Mary Esther?
$76,890 (±$10,574) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mary Esther?
6.3%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mary Esther?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mary Esther work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Walton Beach (25%, 2 mi), Destin (9%, 11 mi), Wright (9%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mary Esther walkable?
Mary Esther is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 9.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mary Esther without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mary Esther, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mary Esther
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.