Gov. Abner Coburn House · Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Skowhegan has lower household incomes than 88% of U.S. towns
For 8% of workers, the job is at home; Maine has 16%. 14.2% of residents live below the poverty line; Maine has 10.7%. Skowhegan grades C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Skowhegan apart on work
Jobs & income in Skowhegan: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Skowhegan is better than 25% of U.S. towns, #120 of 143 in Maine. Unemployment holds Skowhegan’s grade up (3.7%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($49,485, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Skowhegan could be anywhere from D to C+.
Skowhegan fills up on a workday
On a workday 2,804 residents head out to work, 1,286 work right here, and 4,560 people come in from elsewhere.
About 10,000 people are in Skowhegan on a workday afternoon, 20% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.43 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where Skowhegan goes to work
Where Skowhegan clocks in
8% of workers
7% 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.
In Skowhegan, 28% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
5,846 jobs are based in Skowhegan.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Skowhegan, 2014 → 2024: 5,546 → 5,846. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Skowhegan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Skowhegan takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Skowhegan workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,404 commuters (the 8% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Skowhegan
About 24% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Skowhegan is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Skowhegan is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #21 of 143 in Maine. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,696 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). 12.0% of Skowhegan households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Skowhegan’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,373rd of 2,893: where Skowhegan ranks among U.S. towns of 6,100 to 11,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Cumberland ME | 8,876 | $174K | 3.1% | 0.2% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 314 | Cape Elizabeth ME | 9,827 | $146K | 5.2% | 2.5% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 370 | Buxton ME | 8,681 | $100K | 2.3% | 1.4% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,371 | Graham TX | 8,814 | $64K | 18.4% | 3.4% | 34% | C− |
| 2,372 | Merrill WI | 9,389 | $53K | 17.4% | 4.2% | 31% | C− |
| 2,373 | Skowhegan ME | 8,676 | $49K | 14.2% | 3.7% | 31% | C− |
| 2,374 | London KY | 7,637 | $48K | 30.2% | 3.5% | 34% | C− |
| 2,375 | Spring Lake NC | 11,252 | $52K | 17.7% | 5.4% | 6% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,893 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Skowhegan, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
The towns around Skowhegan
The biggest share goes to Madison (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Skowhegan workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skowhegan | – | C− | A− | 25 min | $49,485 |
| Canaan | under 2% | C | C | 34 min | $57,781 |
| Norridgewock | under 2% | C− | D− | 22 min | $61,579 |
| Cornville | under 2% | C | D | 28 min | $79,926 |
| Madison | 3% | C+ | B | 27 min | $61,747 |
| Fairfield | 2% | B− | B− | 25 min | $64,101 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Skowhegan’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 2024, 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 Skowhegan: questions
What is the median household income in Skowhegan?
$49,485 (±$6,442) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Skowhegan?
14.2%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Skowhegan?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Skowhegan work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterville (8%, 15 mi), Augusta (7%, 30 mi), Bangor (3%, 43 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Skowhegan walkable?
Skowhegan is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Skowhegan without a car?
0% 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 Skowhegan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Skowhegan
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.