Photo: Mopenstein · Public domainManchester has lower unemployment (0.1%) than 98% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Manchester A+; getting around on foot earns it C−. Measured by household income, Manchester is ahead of 89% of U.S. towns. Only 3% work in Manchester; the top destination outside it is Westminster (8%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Manchester in brief
Manchester’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Manchester is better than 97% of U.S. towns, #31 of 261 in Maryland. Unemployment is its strongest input; job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 75% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Manchester could be anywhere from A to A+.
Commuting out of Manchester: the destinations
Where Manchester clocks in
8% of workers
7% 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.
Who works in Manchester, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 2,511 residents head out to work, 90 work right here, and 691 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,600 people are in Manchester on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than live here.
0.30 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Inside Manchester’s 781 jobs
781 jobs are based in Manchester.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Manchester, 2013 → 2023: 875 → 781. 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 Manchester’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 33 minutes in Manchester
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Manchester workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,139 commuters (the 19% 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.
How many miles Manchester commutes
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.
The commute in Manchester is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Manchester is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns, #256 of 261 in Maryland. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 2,630 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). 6.4% of Manchester households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Manchester’s commuters take a bus or train.
Manchester is 153rd of 3,541 U.S. towns of 3,800 to 7,300 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Fulton MD | 5,677 | $222K | 0.7% | 1.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Riva MD | 4,976 | $176K | 1.1% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Hampton MD | 5,372 | $171K | 3.8% | 0.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 151 | Sherwood OH | 3,808 | $126K | 4.2% | 1.4% | <1% | A+ |
| 152 | Woodside CA | 5,181 | $250K | 4.5% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| 153 | Manchester MD | 5,426 | $122K | 4.8% | 0.1% | 3% | A+ |
| 154 | Raymond WI | 4,006 | $109K | 5.0% | 1.1% | 6% | A+ |
| 155 | Mead CO | 7,042 | $125K | 1.4% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,541 | 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 Manchester, 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 Manchester: questions
What is the median household income in Manchester?
$121,676 (±$21,471) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Manchester?
4.8%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Manchester?
33 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Manchester work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Westminster (8%, 8 mi), Baltimore (7%, 28 mi), Towson (4%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Manchester walkable?
Manchester is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Manchester without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Manchester, from the people who make the trip.
More of Manchester
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.