Photo: Squelle · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Berlin (2.1%) is lower than in 83% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Berlin is better than 51% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (A−). Home is the office for 6% of workers, against 19% across Maryland. About one in seven stay in Berlin for work; outside it, Ocean City is the main destination (13%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Berlin: the gist
Why Berlin gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Unemployment holds Berlin’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (18.9%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Berlin could be anywhere from C to B+.
Each way, about 21 minutes from Berlin
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Berlin workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,206 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Maryland: 80% drive alone, 5% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Berlin fills up on a workday
On a workday 1,852 residents head out to work, 304 work right here, and 2,565 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,000 people are in Berlin on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.33 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 Berlin goes to work
Where Berlin clocks in
10% 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.
Most jobs in Berlin are in services
2,869 jobs are based in Berlin.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Berlin, 2013 → 2023: 2,770 → 2,869. 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 Berlin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Berlin to work
About 24% 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.
Berlin is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.0% across Maryland, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,359 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). 14.9% of Berlin households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Berlin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Berlin next to U.S. towns of 3,700 to 7,200: 1,959th of 3,651 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Fulton MD | 5,677 | $222K | 0.7% | 1.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Riva MD | 4,976 | $176K | 1.1% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Hampton MD | 5,372 | $171K | 3.8% | 0.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,957 | Kenneth City FL | 4,868 | $49K | 13.8% | 2.8% | 1% | B− |
| 1,958 | Umatilla FL | 4,199 | $71K | 11.0% | 2.5% | 5% | B− |
| 1,959 | Berlin MD | 5,335 | $81K | 18.9% | 2.1% | 14% | B− |
| 1,960 | St. Joseph MN | 6,846 | $75K | 19.1% | 2.8% | 10% | B− |
| 1,961 | Washington Township OH | 5,113 | $64K | 6.0% | 4.1% | 6% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,651 | 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 Berlin, the top three, the last and three more from Maryland.
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 Berlin: questions
What is the median household income in Berlin?
$81,438 (±$14,901) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Berlin?
18.9%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Berlin?
21 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Berlin work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ocean City (13%, 10 mi), Salisbury (10%, 20 mi), West Ocean City (7%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Berlin walkable?
Berlin is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Berlin without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Berlin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Berlin
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.