St. Martins Church · Photo: Linda Roy Walls · CC BY-SA 3.0Ocean Pines has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Employers in Ocean Pines report 946 jobs, and 4,521 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Ocean Pines is better than 54% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (B−). Only 6% work in Ocean Pines; the top destination outside it is Ocean City (13%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Ocean Pines at work: what stands out
Ocean Pines is a place people come home to
There are 946 jobs based in Ocean Pines, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Ocean Pines has about 8,800 people in it, 29% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Ocean Pines
58% of Ocean Pines residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 40% of the jobs based in Ocean Pines pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 94% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Ocean Pines has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Ocean Pines went from 693 in 2013 to 946 in 2023, +37%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Ocean Pines are quick
The average trip to work takes 26 minutes, against 31 across Maryland. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Maryland worker. Time on the road ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Ocean Pines
The poverty rate holds Ocean Pines’ grade up (5.5%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down (6.0%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ocean Pines could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Ocean Pines on a workday afternoon
On a workday 4,256 residents head out to work, 265 work right here, and 681 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,800 people are in Ocean Pines on a workday afternoon, 29% 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.
What Ocean Pines’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ocean Pines, 2013 → 2023: 693 → 946. 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 Pines’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way, quicker than most of Maryland
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ocean Pines workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,942 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.
Where Ocean Pines goes to work
Where Ocean Pines clocks in
10% 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.
Where in the region Ocean Pines works
About 30% 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.
Most of Ocean Pines commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,763 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). 4.7% of Ocean Pines households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Ocean Pines’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,354 U.S. towns of 9,000 to 17,000, Ocean Pines comes 1,376th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Scaggsville MD | 10,564 | $207K | 2.9% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Chevy Chase MD | 9,445 | $212K | 4.3% | 1.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Annapolis Neck MD | 12,032 | $174K | 3.3% | 0.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,374 | Lake Township OH | 11,357 | $72K | 11.2% | 4.5% | 7% | B− |
| 1,375 | Coventry Township OH | 10,264 | $74K | 9.9% | 5.7% | 4% | B− |
| 1,376 | Ocean Pines MD | 12,351 | $92K | 5.5% | 6.0% | 6% | B− |
| 1,377 | Hazel Park MI | 14,937 | $67K | 12.3% | 5.1% | 4% | B− |
| 1,378 | Red Bank TN | 12,405 | $64K | 12.0% | 3.8% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,354 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Pines, the top three, the last and three more from Maryland.
Ocean Pines and the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ocean Pines workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean Pines | – | B− | B− | 26 min | $91,824 |
| West Ocean City | 6% | B− | A− | 20 min | $97,165 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to West Ocean City. Darker towns draw more of Ocean Pines’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 Ocean Pines: questions
What is the median household income in Ocean Pines?
$91,824 (±$6,363) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ocean Pines?
5.5%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ocean Pines?
26 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 Pines work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ocean City (13%, 4 mi), Salisbury (10%, 24 mi), Berlin (7%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ocean Pines walkable?
Ocean Pines is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ocean Pines without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ocean Pines, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ocean Pines
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.