Photo: Back2reality07 · CC BY-SA 3.0New Sharon has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
The two grades for New Sharon are C for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. New Sharon has 140 jobs, and 714 of its residents work somewhere. Only 4% work in New Sharon itself; outside it, Farmington draws the most (16%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in New Sharon, in a few figures
New Sharon is a place people come home to
There are 140 jobs based in New Sharon, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday New Sharon has about 1,000 people in it, 36% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
New Sharon workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 30 minutes each way, against 25 across Maine. Over a year that’s about 230 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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; with 714 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind New Sharon’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, New Sharon is better than 28% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds New Sharon’s grade up (9.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 22% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: New Sharon’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, New Sharon could be anywhere from D to B.
Who commutes out of New Sharon, and who commutes in
On a workday 685 residents head out to work, 29 work right here, and 111 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in New Sharon on a workday afternoon, 36% 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.
Each way, about 30 minutes from New Sharon
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of New Sharon workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 721 commuters (the 9% 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.
Where people from New Sharon work
Where New Sharon clocks in
16% 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.
What New Sharon’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in New Sharon, 2013 → 2023: 116 → 140. 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 New Sharon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region New Sharon works
About 27% 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 New Sharon start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, New Sharon is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 4.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 790 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 New Sharon households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of New Sharon’s commuters take a bus or train.
New Sharon next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200: 3,732nd of 6,161 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 275 | Dayton ME | 2,182 | $114K | 3.7% | 0.2% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 556 | Ogunquit ME | 1,606 | $114K | 3.2% | 0.0% | 22% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 603 | Pownal ME | 1,645 | $104K | 5.5% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,730 | Hoyt Lakes MN | 1,978 | $66K | 7.3% | 13.9% | 11% | C |
| 3,731 | Glen Alpine NC | 1,552 | $70K | 11.0% | 6.7% | <1% | C |
| 3,732 | New Sharon ME | 1,614 | $64K | 9.6% | 0.0% | 4% | C |
| 3,733 | Gibson Township MI | 1,107 | $62K | 6.6% | 3.3% | 1% | C |
| 3,734 | Cleveland Township PA | 1,154 | $72K | 12.7% | 9.5% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 New Sharon, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
Next door is work for 19% of New Sharon
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | New Sharon workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Sharon | – | C | C+ | 30 min | $63,889 |
| Chesterville | 3% | C− | C+ | 25 min | $61,635 |
| Mercer | under 3% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| Industry | under 3% | — | — | 41 min | — |
| Starks | under 3% | — | — | 33 min | — |
| Farmington | 16% | D | A− | 27 min | $54,276 |
| Vienna | under 3% | — | — | 62 min | — |
| Rome | under 3% | C+ | D | 30 min | $77,639 |
Same-state neighbors only. Mercer, Industry, Starks and Vienna: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Farmington. Darker towns draw more of New Sharon’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 New Sharon: questions
What is the median household income in New Sharon?
$63,889 (±$20,510) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in New Sharon?
9.6%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from New Sharon?
30 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in New Sharon work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Farmington (16%, 7 mi), Augusta (10%, 25 mi), Portland (4%, 71 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is New Sharon walkable?
New Sharon is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around New Sharon 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 New Sharon, from the people who make the trip.
More of New Sharon
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.