Photo: Public domain · Public domainOwls Head has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
The two grades for Owls Head are B for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Owls Head has 216 jobs for 520 working residents. Only 5% work in Owls Head; the top destination outside it is Rockland (27%, 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 Owls Head
A lot of Owls Head works one town over
35% of working residents work in a town that borders Owls Head: Rockland (27%) and South Thomaston (8%). Next door ↓
Most Owls Head residents work close to home
61% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Commutes from Owls Head are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 25 across Maine. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Maine 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 520 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Owls Head gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Owls Head is better than 56% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Owls Head’s grade up (5.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (3.9%) is left out: Owls Head’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Owls Head could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
The distance from Owls Head to work
About 18% 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 to work from Owls Head takes about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Owls Head workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 579 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 a workday changes Owls Head
On a workday 495 residents head out to work, 25 work right here, and 191 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Owls Head on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
Where Owls Head goes to work
Where Owls Head clocks in
27% of workers
9% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 30% of the jobs in Owls Head
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Owls Head, 2013 → 2023: 165 → 216. 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 Owls Head’s own residents hold wherever they work.
For most of Owls Head, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Owls Head is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 14.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 668 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). 2.2% of Owls Head households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Owls Head’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000, Owls Head ranks 1,865th of 6,308 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 515 | Ogunquit ME | 1,606 | $114K | 3.2% | 0.0% | 22% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 556 | Pownal ME | 1,645 | $104K | 5.5% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 614 | Newcastle ME | 1,915 | $90K | 3.5% | 0.0% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,863 | Cain Township IN | 1,127 | $84K | 5.3% | 0.7% | 2% | B |
| 1,864 | Milford Township KS | 1,627 | $94K | 5.3% | 2.5% | 1% | B |
| 1,865 | Owls Head ME | 1,494 | $87K | 5.7% | 3.9% | 5% | B |
| 1,866 | Fair Haven Township MN | 1,587 | $89K | 10.4% | 4.8% | 1% | B |
| 1,867 | Tuscarora Township PA | 1,057 | $95K | 4.7% | 1.3% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Owls Head, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
The towns next door employ 35% of Owls Head
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Owls Head workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owls Head | – | B | B+ | 16 min | $87,325 |
| South Thomaston | 8% | B | C | 16 min | $86,838 |
| North Haven | under 3% | — | — | 9 min | — |
| Rockland | 27% | C− | A | 12 min | $56,533 |
Same-state neighbors only. North Haven: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Rockland. Darker towns draw more of Owls Head’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 Owls Head: questions
What is the median household income in Owls Head?
$87,325 (±$6,616) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Owls Head?
5.7%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Owls Head?
16 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Owls Head work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rockland (27%, 4 mi), Rockport (9%, 6 mi), South Thomaston (8%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Owls Head walkable?
Owls Head is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 14% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Owls Head without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Owls Head, from the people who make the trip.
More of Owls Head
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.