Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Waterville draws 9,711 commuters a day, with 1.8 jobs for every working resident
Measured by household income, Waterville is behind 83% of U.S. towns. There are 11,787 jobs in Waterville, against 6,400 working residents. For jobs and income Waterville is better than 19% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Waterville stands out on work
Waterville is where the jobs are
Waterville has 11,787 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Waterville are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 25 across Maine. That’s about 54 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.
Why Waterville gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Waterville’s grade up (ahead of 49% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (20.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Waterville could be anywhere from D to C+.
The workday shuffle in and out of Waterville
On a workday 4,324 residents head out to work and 2,076 work right here.
About 23,000 people are in Waterville on a workday afternoon, 31% more 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.
About 18 minutes to work from Waterville
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Waterville workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,448 commuters (the 17% 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 daily trip into Waterville
Where Waterville clocks in
14% of workers
5% of workers
5% 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.
What Waterville’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Waterville, 2013 → 2023: 10,898 → 11,787. 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 Waterville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Waterville
About 16% 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.
Waterville is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 7,735 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). 17.2% of Waterville households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Waterville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Waterville next to U.S. towns of 12,000 to 24,000: 1,888th of 2,103 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 130 | Falmouth ME | 12,982 | $151K | 2.3% | 2.7% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 254 | Windham ME | 19,912 | $108K | 3.4% | 1.5% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 338 | Gorham ME | 19,239 | $112K | 3.7% | 2.6% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,886 | Kerman CA | 17,553 | $60K | 21.3% | 10.4% | 14% | C− |
| 1,887 | St. Marys GA | 20,546 | $74K | 17.4% | 7.6% | 17% | C− |
| 1,888 | Waterville ME | 17,579 | $54K | 20.6% | 5.5% | 32% | C− |
| 1,889 | Marietta OH | 13,053 | $48K | 19.1% | 4.7% | 36% | C− |
| 1,890 | Junction City KS | 22,583 | $61K | 17.5% | 6.2% | 38% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,103 | 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 Waterville, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
Waterville and its neighbors: 10% work next door
The biggest share goes to Winslow (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Waterville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waterville | – | C− | A | 18 min | $53,580 |
| Winslow | 5% | B | C+ | 23 min | $70,917 |
| Oakland | 5% | B | C− | 27 min | $77,813 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Waterville’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 Waterville: questions
What is the median household income in Waterville?
$53,580 (±$3,811) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Waterville?
20.6%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Waterville?
18 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Waterville work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Augusta (14%, 15 mi), Oakland (5%, 4 mi), Winslow (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Waterville walkable?
Waterville is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.4 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Waterville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Waterville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Waterville
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.