Wye House · Photo: Historic American Buildings Survey · Public domainSt. Michaels has 2.2 jobs for every working resident: 767 people commute in to work
About one in ten work in St. Michaels itself; outside it, Easton draws the most (18%, 8 miles). 807 jobs are based in St. Michaels for 374 working residents. St. Michaels grades B− for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in St. Michaels: the figures worth knowing
St. Michaels is where the jobs are
St. Michaels has 807 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,500 people are in town, 40% more than the 1,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
St. Michaels and Easton trade workers both ways
Easton is the top workplace for St. Michaels residents (18%) and also where the most people who work in St. Michaels come from (20% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from St. Michaels are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 31 across Maryland. That’s about 77 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; with 374 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in St. Michaels: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, St. Michaels is better than 45% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds St. Michaels’ grade up (5.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 10% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (7.6%) is left out: St. Michaels’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, St. Michaels could be anywhere from C to B.
Who leaves St. Michaels for work, and who comes in
On a workday 334 residents head out to work and 40 work right here.
About 1,500 people are in St. Michaels on a workday afternoon, 40% 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.
Where St. Michaels’s workers come from
Where St. Michaels clocks in
18% of workers
5% 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.
From St. Michaels, about 21 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of St. Michaels workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 382 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in St. Michaels, 2013 → 2023: 858 → 807. 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 St. Michaels’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region St. Michaels works
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: St. Michaels
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, St. Michaels is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place St. Michaels 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 463 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). 5.6% of St. Michaels households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of St. Michaels’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, St. Michaels is 1,426th of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Galesville MD | 1,062 | $205K | 2.7% | 6.3% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Queen Anne MD | 1,443 | $103K | 4.0% | 19.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,424 | Alma NE | 1,009 | $76K | 4.2% | 1.3% | 27% | B− |
| 1,425 | Middlebury NY | 1,315 | $86K | 8.2% | 3.8% | 2% | B− |
| 1,426 | St. Michaels MD | 1,083 | $78K | 5.8% | 7.6% | 11% | B− |
| 1,427 | Mars PA | 1,391 | $51K | 10.0% | 1.0% | 2% | B− |
| 1,428 | Parker SD | 1,349 | $90K | 11.1% | 2.8% | 7% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 St. Michaels, 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 St. Michaels: questions
What is the median household income in St. Michaels?
$78,265 (±$9,671) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in St. Michaels?
5.8%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from St. Michaels?
21 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in St. Michaels work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Easton (18%, 8 mi), Baltimore (5%, 41 mi), Cambridge (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is St. Michaels walkable?
St. Michaels is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.1 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around St. Michaels without a car?
1% 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 St. Michaels, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. Michaels
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.