Photo: Adam Moss · CC BY-SA 2.0Ridgely has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
The two grades for Ridgely are C for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 345 jobs are based in Ridgely, against 872 working residents. For 9% of workers, the job is at home (Maryland 19%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Ridgely
How Ridgely earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Ridgely is better than 28% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Ridgely’s grade.
Unemployment (10.8%) is left out: Ridgely’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Ridgely could be anywhere from D to B−.
What Ridgely’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ridgely, 2013 → 2023: 454 → 345. 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 Ridgely’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Ridgely: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 845 residents head out to work, 27 work right here, and 318 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Ridgely on a workday afternoon, 32% 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.
8% of working residents work in Easton
Where Ridgely clocks in
8% of workers
8% 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.
About 35 minutes each way for Ridgely’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ridgely workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 762 commuters (the 9% 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.
Miles to work from Ridgely
About 21% 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.
Ridgely is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ridgely is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ridgely near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 836 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). 6.0% of Ridgely households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ridgely’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Ridgely is 3,776th among 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Cabin John MD | 2,179 | $250K | 0.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,774 | Port Edwards WI | 1,358 | $81K | 14.4% | 1.3% | 2% | C |
| 3,775 | Rosepine LA | 1,454 | $61K | 9.5% | 0.0% | 3% | C |
| 3,776 | Ridgely MD | 1,630 | $62K | 12.8% | 10.8% | 3% | C |
| 3,777 | Langley WA | 1,129 | $77K | 10.4% | 4.2% | 11% | C |
| 3,778 | Shullsburg WI | 1,240 | $64K | 11.7% | 4.6% | 11% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Ridgely, 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 Ridgely: questions
What is the median household income in Ridgely?
$62,048 (±$13,044) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ridgely?
12.8%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ridgely?
35 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ridgely work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Easton (8%, 16 mi), Denton (8%, 6 mi), Baltimore (4%, 46 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ridgely walkable?
Ridgely is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ridgely 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 Ridgely, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ridgely
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.