Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0A job hub: Damariscotta has 2.9 jobs per working resident, and 2,206 people come in to work
Damariscotta grades C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. There are 2,395 jobs in Damariscotta for 833 working residents. About one in five work in Damariscotta; the top destination outside it is Portland (6%, 44 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Damariscotta apart on work
The four measures behind Damariscotta’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Damariscotta is better than 22% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Damariscotta’s grade.
Unemployment (8.3%) is left out: Damariscotta’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, Damariscotta could be anywhere from D to B−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Damariscotta
On a workday 644 residents head out to work and 189 work right here.
About 3,900 people are in Damariscotta on a workday afternoon, 68% 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 Damariscotta’s workforce comes from
Where Damariscotta clocks in
6% of workers
5% 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.
The kinds of work in Damariscotta
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Damariscotta, 2013 → 2023: 2,199 → 2,395. 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 Damariscotta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes to work from Damariscotta
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Damariscotta workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 723 commuters (the 13% 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.
How far it is to work from Damariscotta
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.
Few in Damariscotta walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Damariscotta is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Damariscotta 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 833 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). 6.5% of Damariscotta households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Damariscotta’s commuters take a bus or train.
Damariscotta is 3,874th of 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 287 | Dayton ME | 2,182 | $114K | 3.7% | 0.2% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 598 | Ogunquit ME | 1,606 | $114K | 3.2% | 0.0% | 22% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 655 | Pownal ME | 1,645 | $104K | 5.5% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,872 | Buckheart Township IL | 1,675 | $61K | 13.7% | 2.7% | 3% | C− |
| 3,873 | Pierce Township IN | 2,559 | $57K | 14.2% | 5.7% | 1% | C− |
| 3,874 | Damariscotta ME | 2,296 | $59K | 11.9% | 8.3% | 23% | C− |
| 3,875 | Brownfield ME | 1,704 | $61K | 8.1% | 8.3% | 3% | C− |
| 3,876 | Mayfield Township MI | 1,841 | $74K | 15.7% | 6.9% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Damariscotta, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
The towns next door employ 16% of Damariscotta
The biggest share goes to Newcastle (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Damariscotta workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damariscotta | – | C− | B | 23 min | $59,423 |
| Newcastle | 5% | A− | B+ | 17 min | $89,868 |
| Bremen | under 3% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Nobleboro | 4% | B− | C+ | 20 min | $100,417 |
| Bristol | 4% | C+ | B | 18 min | $100,750 |
| Waldoboro | 3% | B− | C− | 25 min | $69,107 |
Same-state neighbors only. Bremen: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Damariscotta’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 Damariscotta: questions
What is the median household income in Damariscotta?
$59,423 (±$11,165) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Damariscotta?
11.9%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Damariscotta?
23 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Damariscotta work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Portland (6%, 44 mi), Newcastle (5%, 4 mi), Bath (5%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Damariscotta walkable?
Damariscotta is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Damariscotta without a car?
0% 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 Damariscotta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Damariscotta
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.