Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0At 2.8%, unemployment in Ellsworth is lower than in 73% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Ellsworth are B− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 7% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for Maine as a whole. About one in three stay in Ellsworth for work; outside it, Bar Harbor is the main destination (14%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Ellsworth: the gist
Ellsworth is where the jobs are
Ellsworth has 5,941 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
The quickest commute around
Ellsworth’s 25-minute average trip is shorter than in any town next door, where it runs from 29 to 42 minutes. Next door ↓
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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Ellsworth
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ellsworth is better than 48% of U.S. towns, #86 of 143 in Maine. Unemployment holds Ellsworth’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down. It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ellsworth could be anywhere from C− to B+.
In and out of Ellsworth on a workday
On a workday 2,510 residents head out to work, 1,423 work right here, and 4,518 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Ellsworth on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
1.5 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Ellsworth: where workers come from
Where Ellsworth clocks in
14% of workers
7% of workers
2% 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.
What Ellsworth’s employers do
5,941 jobs are based in Ellsworth.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ellsworth, 2013 → 2023: 5,026 → 5,941. 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 Ellsworth’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 25 minutes in Ellsworth
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ellsworth workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,860 commuters (the 7% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Ellsworth
About 17% 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.
Ellsworth is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ellsworth is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #25 of 143 in Maine. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,155 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). 12.2% of Ellsworth households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ellsworth’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ellsworth next to U.S. towns of 6,200 to 12,000: 1,751st of 2,907 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 94 | Cumberland ME | 8,876 | $174K | 3.1% | 0.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 324 | Cape Elizabeth ME | 9,827 | $146K | 5.2% | 2.5% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 381 | Buxton ME | 8,681 | $100K | 2.3% | 1.4% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,749 | Pinson AL | 7,830 | $76K | 10.6% | 6.1% | 1% | B− |
| 1,750 | Champion Township OH | 9,277 | $70K | 9.4% | 5.1% | 8% | B− |
| 1,751 | Ellsworth ME | 8,862 | $77K | 9.3% | 2.8% | 36% | B− |
| 1,752 | London OH | 10,813 | $60K | 10.8% | 4.0% | 19% | B− |
| 1,753 | San Leon TX | 6,458 | $75K | 8.5% | 11.1% | 9% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,907 | 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 Ellsworth, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
How Ellsworth compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Trenton (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ellsworth workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellsworth | – | B− | A− | 25 min | $77,375 |
| Surry | under 2% | C+ | D | 31 min | $74,508 |
| Trenton | 2% | D | C | 29 min | $60,455 |
| Orland | under 2% | B− | C | 40 min | $69,348 |
| Dedham | under 2% | B− | C− | 30 min | $111,442 |
| Otis | under 2% | — | — | 42 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Otis: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ellsworth’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 Ellsworth: questions
What is the median household income in Ellsworth?
$77,375 (±$17,844) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ellsworth?
9.3%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ellsworth?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ellsworth work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bar Harbor (14%, 17 mi), Bangor (7%, 23 mi), Trenton (2%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ellsworth walkable?
Ellsworth is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ellsworth without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ellsworth, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ellsworth
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.