With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Willards works elsewhere
Willards grades C for jobs and income and C− for walkability. 185 jobs are based in Willards; 423 of its residents have a job. For 5% of workers, the job is at home, where Maryland as a whole has 19%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Willards at work: what stands out
Jobs & income in Willards: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Willards is better than 32% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Willards’ grade up (ahead of 51% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (22.1%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (11.0%) is left out: Willards’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, Willards could be anywhere from C− to B.
About 23 minutes to work from Willards
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Willards workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 538 commuters (the 5% 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.
How a workday changes Willards
On a workday 417 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 179 people come in from elsewhere.
About 780 people are in Willards on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
21% of working residents work in Salisbury
Where Willards clocks in
21% 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.
65% of the jobs in Willards pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Willards, 2013 → 2023: 235 → 185. 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 Willards’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Willards to work
About 22% 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 trips from Willards start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Willards is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.0% across Maryland.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 566 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). 2.8% of Willards households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Willards’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Willards is 1,654th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Galesville MD | 1,062 | $205K | 2.7% | 6.3% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Libertytown MD | 1,346 | $114K | 1.0% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,652 | Sigel WI | 1,017 | $68K | 10.5% | 2.4% | 1% | C |
| 1,653 | Bloomfield KY | 1,011 | $55K | 10.9% | 3.8% | 2% | C |
| 1,654 | Willards MD | 1,018 | $75K | 22.1% | 11.0% | 1% | C |
| 1,655 | Burnside Township PA | 1,042 | $70K | 8.3% | 4.1% | 6% | C |
| 1,656 | Middleburg PA | 1,302 | $59K | 9.7% | 3.1% | 9% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Willards, 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 Willards: questions
What is the median household income in Willards?
$75,333 (±$7,270) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Willards?
22.1%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Willards?
23 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Willards work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salisbury (21%, 13 mi), Ocean City (8%, 15 mi), Berlin (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Willards walkable?
Willards is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Willards without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Willards, from the people who make the trip.
More of Willards
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.