Captain Robert S. Craig Cottage · Photo: Linda Roy Walls · CC BY-SA 4.0Ocean City has 2.2 jobs for every working resident: 5,384 people commute in to work
Ocean City has 6,510 jobs for 2,894 working residents. Jobs and income earn Ocean City C+; getting around on foot earns it A+. About two in five stay in Ocean City for work; outside it, Salisbury is the main destination (6%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Ocean City: the gist
Commutes from Ocean City are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 31 across Maryland. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Maryland worker. Time on the road ↓
Ocean City is where the jobs are
Ocean City has 6,510 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 10,000 people are in town, 53% more than the 6,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
Nearly all the work in Ocean City is services
86% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 3% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Ocean City draws workers from far and wide
The 6,510 jobs in Ocean City are filled from a wide area. Ocean City’s own residents hold 17% and the ten next-biggest home towns 28%; the other 55% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
Why Ocean City gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ocean City is better than 35% of U.S. towns, #247 of 261 in Maryland. Household income holds Ocean City’s grade up ($77,750, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (5.7%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ocean City could be anywhere from C− to B.
A commute of about 20 minutes in Ocean City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ocean City workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,979 commuters (the 17% 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.
Who leaves Ocean City for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,768 residents head out to work and 1,126 work right here.
About 10,000 people are in Ocean City on a workday afternoon, 53% more 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.
In Ocean City, services account for most jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ocean City, 2013 → 2023: 5,847 → 6,510. 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 Ocean City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Ocean City
Where Ocean City clocks in
6% of workers
3% 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.
Miles to work from Ocean City
About 25% 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.
Ocean City is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,606 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, 25% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 10.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 94% 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). 7.5% of Ocean City households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ocean City’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,241st of 3,168: where Ocean City ranks among U.S. towns of 4,800 to 9,200
| # | 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Fulton MD | 5,677 | $222K | 0.7% | 1.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Riva MD | 4,976 | $176K | 1.1% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Hampton MD | 5,372 | $171K | 3.8% | 0.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,239 | Ross Township PA | 5,519 | $64K | 7.3% | 7.8% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,240 | Hilmar-Irwin CA | 6,132 | $80K | 12.8% | 10.3% | 8% | C+ |
| 2,241 | Ocean City MD | 6,840 | $78K | 10.9% | 5.7% | 39% | C+ |
| 2,242 | Steelton PA | 6,328 | $58K | 19.6% | 5.3% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,243 | Blue River Township IN | 4,948 | $62K | 11.1% | 7.5% | 15% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,168 | 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 Ocean City, 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 Ocean City: questions
What is the median household income in Ocean City?
$77,750 (±$4,829) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ocean City?
10.9%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ocean City?
20 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ocean City work?
39% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salisbury (6%, 28 mi), West Ocean City (5%, 5 mi), Berlin (3%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ocean City walkable?
Ocean City is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 13.7 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ocean City without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 25% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ocean City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ocean City
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.