Stonington Opera House · Photo: Choess · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Stonington are lower than in 74% of U.S. towns
Working residents average 16 minutes each way (Maine 25, U.S. 26). The poverty rate is 10.8%; Maine has 10.7%. Jobs and income earn Stonington D; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Stonington at work: what stands out
Stonington and Deer Isle trade workers both ways
Deer Isle is the top workplace for Stonington residents (30%) and also where the most people who work in Stonington come from (43% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Stonington 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 281 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Stonington earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Stonington is better than 15% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Stonington’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (15.9%) is left out: Stonington’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, Stonington could be anywhere from D− to B−.
30% of working residents work in Deer Isle
Where Stonington clocks in
30% of workers
6% 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.
Each way, about 16 minutes from Stonington
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Stonington workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 258 commuters (the 21% 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 many people are in Stonington by day
On a workday 215 residents head out to work, 66 work right here, and 294 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.28 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.
The kinds of work in Stonington
360 jobs are based in Stonington.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Stonington, 2014 → 2024: 348 → 360. 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 Stonington’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Stonington works
About 20% 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.
Getting around Stonington: mostly by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 327 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). 6.1% of Stonington households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Stonington’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Stonington is 2,325th among 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 467 | Edgecomb ME | 1,214 | $109K | 5.6% | 3.1% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 730 | Georgetown ME | 1,101 | $84K | 6.3% | 3.5% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 818 | Wayne ME | 1,167 | $93K | 7.9% | 1.3% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,323 | Clarksville VA | 1,303 | $64K | 15.4% | 6.6% | 13% | D |
| 2,324 | Mullens WV | 1,336 | $62K | 13.8% | 0.9% | 9% | D |
| 2,325 | Stonington ME | 1,058 | $60K | 10.8% | 15.9% | 23% | D |
| 2,326 | Chatsworth IL | 1,156 | $70K | 16.8% | 8.8% | 4% | D |
| 2,327 | Hildale UT | 1,319 | $79K | 19.3% | 8.9% | 9% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Stonington, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
Stonington and its neighbors: 30% work next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Stonington workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stonington | – | D | B+ | 16 min | $60,223 |
| Deer Isle | 30% | C− | B | 20 min | $62,284 |
| Isle au Haut | under 2% | — | — | 4 min | — |
| North Haven | under 2% | — | — | 9 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Isle au Haut and North Haven: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Deer Isle. Darker towns draw more of Stonington’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 Stonington: questions
What is the median household income in Stonington?
$60,223 (±$15,504) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Stonington?
10.8%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Stonington?
16 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Stonington work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Deer Isle (30%, 9 mi), Blue Hill (6%, 18 mi), Ellsworth (3%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Stonington walkable?
Stonington is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Stonington without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Stonington, from the people who make the trip.
More of Stonington
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.