Photo: Bcody80 · Public domainCollege students make up 56% of Orono’s residents
For jobs and income Orono is better than 69% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (A−). Measured by family income, Orono is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns. About one in five stay in Orono for work; outside it, Bangor is the main destination (29%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Orono
Commutes from Orono are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 25 across Maine. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Maine worker. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Orono works one town over
32% of working residents work in a town that borders Orono: Bangor (29%) and Old Town (3%). Next door ↓
Orono is where the jobs are
Orono has 4,401 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Nearly all the work in Orono is services
87% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 9% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
A young workforce
30% of Orono’s working residents are 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
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.
Jobs & income in Orono: the grade in detail
Family income holds Orono’s grade up ($116,736, U.S. $99,999); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 45% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (37% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 7.2%, against 24.9% for all residents. Unemployment (5.1%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($116,736), since student households pull the household median down ($61,528).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Orono could be anywhere from C to A.
About 15 minutes to work from Orono
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Orono workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,427 commuters (the 11% 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.
Orono fills up on a workday
On a workday 2,235 residents head out to work, 653 work right here, and 3,748 people come in from elsewhere.
About 14,000 people are in Orono on a workday afternoon, 12% 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.
Orono is a services town
4,401 jobs are based in Orono.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Orono, 2013 → 2023: 4,720 → 4,401. 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 Orono’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Orono live
Where Orono clocks in
29% of workers
4% of workers
3% 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.
Where in the region Orono works
About 30% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Orono
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 21.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,118 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). 7.2% of Orono households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Orono’s commuters take a bus or train.
Orono is 1,012th of 2,354 U.S. towns of 9,000 to 17,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 165 | Falmouth ME | 12,982 | $151K | 2.3% | 2.7% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 286 | Cape Elizabeth ME | 9,827 | $146K | 5.2% | 2.5% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 646 | York ME | 14,293 | $121K | 5.8% | 2.7% | 31% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,010 | Yorkshire VA | 9,782 | $113K | 17.8% | 3.9% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,011 | Collingswood NJ | 14,386 | $90K | 9.5% | 5.5% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,012 | Orono ME | 12,421 | $62K | 24.9% | 5.1% | 23% | B+ |
| 1,013 | Hanover Township PA | 11,702 | $107K | 7.7% | 6.4% | 8% | B+ |
| 1,014 | Schofield Barracks HI | 16,270 | $80K | 2.6% | 13.1% | 6% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,354 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Orono, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
Next door is work for 32% of Orono
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Orono workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orono | – | B+ | A− | 15 min | $61,528 |
| Old Town | 3% | C | B+ | 20 min | $51,585 |
| Glenburn | under 2% | A− | D | 30 min | $97,474 |
| Bradley | under 2% | B− | C | 23 min | $76,667 |
| Eddington | under 2% | B | D | 32 min | $75,350 |
| Bangor | 29% | C | A | 17 min | $59,942 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Bangor. Darker towns draw more of Orono’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.
- Students. 56% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Orono: questions
What is the median household income in Orono?
$61,528 (±$4,846) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Orono?
24.9% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 7.2%. Maine: 10.7%.
How long is the commute from Orono?
15 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Orono work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bangor (29%, 4 mi), Brewer (4%, 7 mi), Augusta (3%, 62 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Orono walkable?
Orono is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 21% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Orono without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Orono, from the people who make the trip.
More of Orono
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.