Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domainWith 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Charleston works elsewhere
Jobs and income earn Charleston C+; getting around on foot earns it B−. There are 322 jobs in Charleston, and 628 of its residents work somewhere. Only 5% work in Charleston itself; outside it, Bangor draws the most (32%, 21 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Charleston: the figures worth knowing
How Charleston earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Charleston is better than 43% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Charleston’s grade up (6.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 14% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.6%) is left out: Charleston’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, Charleston could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The places Charleston commutes to
Where Charleston clocks in
32% 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.
How many people are in Charleston by day
On a workday 596 residents head out to work, 32 work right here, and 290 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Charleston on a workday afternoon, 19% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Charleston
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Charleston, 2013 → 2023: 294 → 322. 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 Charleston’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Charleston, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Charleston workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 508 commuters (the 17% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Charleston
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.
Most trips from Charleston start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Charleston is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 609 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). 1.8% of Charleston households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Charleston’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Charleston is 2,380th among 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 245 | Dayton ME | 2,182 | $114K | 3.7% | 0.2% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 499 | Ogunquit ME | 1,606 | $114K | 3.2% | 0.0% | 22% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 544 | Pownal ME | 1,645 | $104K | 5.5% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,378 | Bergen WI | 1,363 | $77K | 9.9% | 1.5% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,379 | Royal Palm Estates FL | 1,369 | $61K | 16.9% | 7.1% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,380 | Charleston ME | 1,644 | $75K | 6.4% | 1.6% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,381 | Cushing ME | 1,482 | $84K | 7.7% | 3.6% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,382 | Becket MA | 1,922 | $80K | 12.1% | 3.6% | 4% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | 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 Charleston, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
The towns around Charleston
The biggest share goes to Corinth (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Charleston workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charleston | – | C+ | B− | 26 min | $75,250 |
| Bradford | under 2% | C+ | D− | 39 min | $82,955 |
| Garland | under 2% | D− | D | 26 min | $51,094 |
| Corinth | 7% | C+ | D | 30 min | $64,229 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Charleston’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 Charleston: questions
What is the median household income in Charleston?
$75,250 (±$20,351) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Charleston?
6.4%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Charleston?
26 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Charleston work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bangor (32%, 21 mi), Corinth (7%, 7 mi), Hermon (6%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Charleston walkable?
Charleston is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Charleston without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Charleston, from the people who make the trip.
More of Charleston
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.