Lakewood Theater · Public domainMadison has lower unemployment (0.7%) than 96% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Madison is behind 71% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn Madison C+; getting around on foot earns it B. Only 8% work in Madison itself; outside it, Skowhegan draws the most (23%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Madison, in brief
Inside Madison’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Madison is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #97 of 143 in Maine. Unemployment holds Madison’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 19% of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Madison could be anywhere from C− to B.
The towns that employ Madison’s residents
Where Madison clocks in
23% of workers
8% 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.
Madison on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,894 residents head out to work, 158 work right here, and 844 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,800 people are in Madison on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
0.49 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
What work there is in Madison: 1,002 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Madison, 2013 → 2023: 1,151 → 1,002. 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 Madison’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Madison’s commute takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Madison workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,683 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.
Madison’s commute, mile by mile
About 25% 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.
Getting around Madison: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Madison is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #41 of 143 in Maine. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,086 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). 4.5% of Madison households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Madison’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,451st of 3,840: where Madison ranks among U.S. towns of 3,400 to 6,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 356 | North Yarmouth ME | 4,424 | $129K | 4.8% | 1.9% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 758 | Arundel ME | 4,596 | $102K | 5.9% | 3.0% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 787 | Hollis ME | 5,003 | $96K | 5.7% | 1.8% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,449 | St. Thomas Township PA | 6,027 | $74K | 7.3% | 5.9% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,450 | Rockfish NC | 3,574 | $64K | 15.2% | 3.5% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,451 | Madison ME | 4,888 | $62K | 15.0% | 0.7% | 8% | C+ |
| 2,452 | Sanibel FL | 6,303 | $109K | 11.6% | 5.7% | 20% | C+ |
| 2,453 | Medina NY | 5,855 | $59K | 12.3% | 3.3% | 26% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,840 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Madison, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
Madison and its neighbors: 27% work next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Madison workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madison | – | C+ | B | 27 min | $61,747 |
| Anson | 2% | C− | C+ | 33 min | $52,474 |
| Norridgewock | 2% | C− | D− | 22 min | $61,579 |
| Starks | under 3% | — | — | 33 min | — |
| Solon | under 3% | C− | B− | 52 min | $69,205 |
| Skowhegan | 23% | C− | A− | 25 min | $49,485 |
| Cornville | under 3% | C | D | 28 min | $79,926 |
Same-state neighbors only. Starks: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Skowhegan. Darker towns draw more of Madison’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 Madison: questions
What is the median household income in Madison?
$61,747 (±$10,636) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Madison?
15.0%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Madison?
27 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Madison work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Skowhegan (23%, 8 mi), Waterville (8%, 21 mi), Augusta (5%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Madison walkable?
Madison is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Madison without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Madison, from the people who make the trip.
More of Madison
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.