Charlestown Historic District · Photo: Smallbones · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.2 jobs for every working resident, most of Charlestown works elsewhere
Employers in Charlestown report 148 jobs, against 632 working residents. The two grades for Charlestown are A− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Charlestown is ahead of 89% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Charlestown apart
Jobs & income in Charlestown: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Charlestown is better than 81% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($122,125, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (8.5%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (4.3%) is left out: Charlestown’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, Charlestown could be anywhere from B− to A+.
Charlestown on a workday afternoon
On a workday 627 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 143 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Charlestown on a workday afternoon, 31% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
9% of working residents work in Elkton
Where Charlestown clocks in
9% of workers
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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Charlestown, 2013 → 2023: 133 → 148. 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 Charlestown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 31 minutes each way, about the MD average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Charlestown workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 752 commuters (the 16% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Charlestown
About 16% 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.
Charlestown is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Charlestown is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.0% across Maryland.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 890 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 65% 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). 0.4% of Charlestown households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Charlestown’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Charlestown is 595th of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Colmar Manor MD | 1,590 | $123K | 2.3% | 4.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 593 | Edmonston MD | 1,621 | $78K | 7.8% | 12.4% | 1% | A− |
| 594 | Ship Bottom NJ | 1,126 | $109K | 3.7% | 2.3% | 9% | A− |
| 595 | Charlestown MD | 1,553 | $122K | 8.5% | 4.3% | 1% | A− |
| 596 | Blue River Township IN | 1,470 | $104K | 11.5% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| 597 | Newark WI | 1,516 | $96K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Charlestown, 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 Charlestown: questions
What is the median household income in Charlestown?
$122,125 (±$39,930) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Charlestown?
8.5%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Charlestown?
31 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Charlestown work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Elkton (9%, 9 mi), Baltimore (5%, 39 mi), Perryville (4%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Charlestown walkable?
Charlestown is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 10.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Charlestown without a car?
2% 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 Charlestown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Charlestown
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.