Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0A job hub: Bath has 2.3 jobs per working resident, and 7,677 people come in to work
About one in four work in Bath itself; outside it, Brunswick draws the most (12%, 7 miles). 8,837 jobs are based in Bath; 3,909 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Bath C+; getting around on foot earns it A.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Bath: the figures worth knowing
Bath makes and builds things
66% of the jobs based in Bath are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Bath residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 21%. The jobs ↓
Bath is where the jobs are
Bath has 8,837 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 14,000 people are in town, 56% more than the 8,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
The jobs in Bath pay better than its residents’ jobs
79% of the jobs based in Bath pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 61% of the jobs Bath residents hold. 87% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Bath. The jobs ↓
Bath draws workers from far and wide
The 8,837 jobs in Bath are filled from a wide area. Bath’s own residents hold 13% and the ten next-biggest home towns 31%; the other 56% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
Inside Bath’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bath is better than 37% of U.S. towns, #101 of 143 in Maine. Job access by car holds Bath’s grade up (ahead of 57% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (5.8%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bath could be anywhere from C− to B+.
A place that makes things: 66% of Bath’s jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bath, 2013 → 2023: 8,971 → 8,837. 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 Bath’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Bath by day
On a workday 2,749 residents head out to work and 1,160 work right here.
About 14,000 people are in Bath on a workday afternoon, 56% 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.
The towns that send workers to Bath
Where Bath clocks in
12% of workers
10% 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 24 minutes each way, about the ME average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bath workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,661 commuters (the 19% who work from home are left out). Across Maine: 84% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Half of Bath commutes less than 10 miles
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.
Bath is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bath is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns, #5 of 143 in Maine. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 8.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,537 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). 7.3% of Bath households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bath’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,878 U.S. towns of 6,200 to 11,900, Bath comes 2,049th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 93 | Cumberland ME | 8,876 | $174K | 3.1% | 0.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 320 | Cape Elizabeth ME | 9,827 | $146K | 5.2% | 2.5% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 377 | Buxton ME | 8,681 | $100K | 2.3% | 1.4% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,047 | Hamilton Township PA | 8,520 | $74K | 10.5% | 7.7% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,048 | Highlands TX | 6,335 | $52K | 9.8% | 10.1% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,049 | Bath ME | 8,835 | $69K | 12.4% | 5.8% | 30% | C+ |
| 2,050 | Snowflake AZ | 6,902 | $76K | 14.0% | 2.5% | 31% | C+ |
| 2,051 | California Polytechnic State University CA | 7,915 | — | 7.5% | 15.7% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Bath, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
15% of Bath works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bath workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | – | C+ | A | 24 min | $69,390 |
| West Bath | under 2% | A− | C− | 21 min | $103,333 |
| Woolwich | under 2% | B+ | C− | 29 min | $102,175 |
| Brunswick | 12% | B | A | 23 min | $74,952 |
| Phippsburg | under 2% | B+ | C+ | 21 min | $107,833 |
| Topsham | 3% | B+ | B− | 24 min | $91,028 |
| Arrowsic | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Bowdoinham | under 2% | C+ | C− | 27 min | $108,479 |
Same-state neighbors only. Arrowsic: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Brunswick. Darker towns draw more of Bath’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 Bath: questions
What is the median household income in Bath?
$69,390 (±$11,502) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bath?
12.4%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bath?
24 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bath work?
30% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Brunswick (12%, 7 mi), Portland (10%, 27 mi), Augusta (4%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bath walkable?
Bath is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bath without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bath, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bath
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.