Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Sullivan works elsewhere
Employers in Sullivan report 187 jobs, against 507 working residents. For jobs and income Sullivan is better than 10% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (C). About one in ten work in Sullivan; the top destination outside it is Ellsworth (18%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Sullivan
Sullivan’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
The poverty rate holds Sullivan’s grade up (13.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (6.0%) is left out: Sullivan’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, Sullivan could be anywhere from D− to C.
A workday in Sullivan: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 466 residents head out to work, 41 work right here, and 146 people come in from elsewhere.
About 960 people are in Sullivan on a workday afternoon, 25% 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.
The places Sullivan commutes to
Where Sullivan clocks in
18% of workers
12% of workers
7% 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.
The kinds of work in Sullivan
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sullivan, 2013 → 2023: 107 → 187. 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 Sullivan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 26 minutes in Sullivan
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sullivan workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 501 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.
The commute from Sullivan, by distance
About 19% 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.
Sullivan is a driving town
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 573 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). 1.7% of Sullivan households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sullivan’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Sullivan ranks: 3,988th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 378 | Ogunquit ME | 1,606 | $114K | 3.2% | 0.0% | 22% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 406 | Pownal ME | 1,645 | $104K | 5.5% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 782 | Edgecomb ME | 1,214 | $109K | 5.6% | 3.1% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,986 | Buchanan GA | 1,028 | $53K | 17.1% | 10.0% | 5% | D |
| 3,987 | Cole Camp MO | 1,169 | $47K | 12.7% | 1.5% | 17% | D |
| 3,988 | Sullivan ME | 1,281 | $60K | 13.6% | 6.0% | 8% | D |
| 3,989 | Jackson Township MO | 1,207 | $58K | 15.8% | 1.0% | 8% | D |
| 3,990 | Burke NY | 1,424 | $64K | 18.5% | 2.1% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Sullivan, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
The towns around Sullivan
The biggest share goes to Franklin (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sullivan workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sullivan | – | D | C | 26 min | $59,643 |
| Sorrento | under 2% | — | — | 34 min | — |
| Hancock | 4% | C+ | C− | 29 min | $72,285 |
| Gouldsboro | under 2% | C− | D | 36 min | $60,873 |
| Franklin | 5% | D | C− | 29 min | $65,455 |
Same-state neighbors only. Sorrento: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sullivan’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 Sullivan: questions
What is the median household income in Sullivan?
$59,643 (±$13,629) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sullivan?
13.6%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sullivan?
26 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sullivan work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ellsworth (18%, 16 mi), Bar Harbor (12%, 11 mi), Bangor (7%, 37 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sullivan walkable?
Sullivan is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sullivan 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 Sullivan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sullivan
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.