Photo: T.S. Custadio aka ToddC4176 at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Orleans have higher incomes than those in 79% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 8.6% of residents; Massachusetts has 10.0%. Jobs and income earn Orleans B; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in five work in Orleans itself; outside it, Barnstable Town draws the most (7%, 21 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Orleans, in brief
Commutes from Orleans are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 29 across Massachusetts. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Massachusetts worker. Time on the road ↓
Orleans’ workforce skews older
40% of Orleans’ working residents are 55 or older. That’s about two in five. The jobs ↓
A lot of Orleans works from home
27% of Orleans workers work from home, against 19% across Massachusetts. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
33% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Orleans
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Orleans is better than 62% of U.S. towns, #215 of 283 in Massachusetts. Household income holds Orleans’ grade up ($102,335, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 30% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Orleans could be anywhere from C+ to A.
About 22 minutes to work from Orleans
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Orleans workers work from home, vs 19% across Massachusetts. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,756 commuters (the 27% who work from home are left out). Across Massachusetts: 75% drive alone, 8% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The kinds of work in Orleans
2,855 jobs are based in Orleans.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Orleans, 2013 → 2023: 3,070 → 2,855. 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 Orleans’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Orleans to work
About 33% 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.
Orleans fills up on a workday
On a workday 1,597 residents head out to work, 453 work right here, and 2,402 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,300 people are in Orleans on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.39 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.
Where people from Orleans work
Where Orleans clocks in
7% of workers
7% 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.
In Orleans, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Orleans is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns, #150 of 283 in Massachusetts. Both inputs place Orleans near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,419 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 14% 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 2.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 74% 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). 4.1% of Orleans households have no vehicle (Massachusetts 11.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Orleans’ commuters take a bus or train.
1,419th of 3,218: where Orleans ranks among U.S. towns of 4,600 to 8,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Lincoln MA | 6,925 | $175K | 2.3% | 2.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Georgetown MA | 8,577 | $152K | 3.8% | 1.7% | 8% | A+ |
| 79 | Hopedale MA | 6,066 | $116K | 2.9% | 1.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,417 | Pendleton IN | 5,930 | $87K | 9.1% | 5.2% | 11% | B |
| 1,418 | South Bound Brook NJ | 4,926 | $113K | 13.1% | 7.2% | 2% | B |
| 1,419 | Orleans MA | 6,524 | $102K | 8.6% | 3.2% | 22% | B |
| 1,420 | Milan IL | 5,028 | $63K | 12.3% | 1.1% | 7% | B |
| 1,421 | Princeton MN | 5,480 | $62K | 8.5% | 1.6% | 21% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,218 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Orleans, the top three, the last and three more from Massachusetts.
19% of Orleans works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Brewster (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Orleans workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orleans | – | B | B+ | 22 min | $102,335 |
| Eastham | 4% | C− | A | 19 min | $72,992 |
| Brewster | 6% | C+ | A− | 21 min | $103,317 |
| East Harwich | under 3% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Harwich | 4% | B | B | 25 min | $96,966 |
| Chatham | 5% | B− | A− | 24 min | $85,167 |
Same-state neighbors only. East Harwich: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Orleans’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 Orleans: questions
What is the median household income in Orleans?
$102,335 (±$13,253) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,960 across Massachusetts and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Orleans?
8.6%, against 10.0% across Massachusetts and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Orleans?
22 minutes each way on average, against 29 across Massachusetts and 26 nationally. 27% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Orleans work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Barnstable Town (7%, 21 mi), Boston (7%, 66 mi), Brewster (6%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Orleans walkable?
Orleans is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Orleans without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Orleans, from the people who make the trip.
More of Orleans
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.