Photo: Captain Bluecrab · CC BY-SA 3.0Jobs and earnings in Rock Hall, and the trip to work
12% of workers work from home, against 19% across Maryland. For jobs and income Rock Hall is better than 37% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in seven stay in Rock Hall for work; outside it, Chestertown is the main destination (20%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Rock Hall apart on work
Inside Rock Hall’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Rock Hall’s grade up (7.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 11% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Rock Hall’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, Rock Hall could be anywhere from D to B.
Commuting from Rock Hall: about 19 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rock Hall workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 536 commuters (the 12% 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.
Rock Hall by day and by night
On a workday 416 residents head out to work, 85 work right here, and 336 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.84 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The towns that employ Rock Hall’s residents
Where Rock Hall clocks in
5% 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.
What Rock Hall’s employers do
421 jobs are based in Rock Hall.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rock Hall, 2013 → 2023: 450 → 421. 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 Rock Hall’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Rock Hall
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.
Rock Hall is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 17.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.0% across Maryland, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 607 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). 12.5% of Rock Hall households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rock Hall’s commuters take a bus or train.
Rock Hall next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600: 2,048th of 4,312 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Colmar Manor MD | 1,590 | $123K | 2.3% | 4.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Galesville MD | 1,062 | $205K | 2.7% | 6.3% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,046 | Franklin Township IN | 1,293 | $59K | 5.0% | 1.4% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,047 | Townshend VT | 1,259 | $79K | 8.1% | 1.8% | 11% | C+ |
| 2,048 | Rock Hall MD | 1,208 | $75K | 7.6% | 1.3% | 17% | C+ |
| 2,049 | Edgar WI | 1,425 | $63K | 9.7% | 1.9% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,050 | Oak Grove WI | 1,020 | $76K | 16.6% | 1.8% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Rock Hall, 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 Rock Hall: questions
What is the median household income in Rock Hall?
$74,597 (±$18,884) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rock Hall?
7.6%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rock Hall?
19 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rock Hall work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chestertown (20%, 10 mi), Baltimore (5%, 23 mi), Centreville (3%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rock Hall walkable?
Rock Hall is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 18% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rock Hall without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rock Hall, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rock Hall
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.