Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ, M.D. · CC BY-SA 4.0Charlestown has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Charlestown has 1,215 jobs, and 3,474 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Charlestown B+; getting around on foot earns it B. Measured by household income, Charlestown is ahead of 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Charlestown stands out on work
A lot of Charlestown works one town over
28% of working residents work in a town that borders Charlestown: South Kingstown (14%), Westerly (9%) and Richmond (5%). Next door ↓
Charlestown’s workforce skews older
37% of Charlestown’s working residents are 55 or older. The jobs ↓
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.
What’s behind Charlestown’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Charlestown is better than 74% of U.S. towns, #19 of 38 in Rhode Island. The poverty rate holds Charlestown’s grade up (4.2%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Charlestown could be anywhere from B to A.
What Charlestown’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Charlestown, 2014 → 2024: 1,016 → 1,215. 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 Charlestown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Charlestown for work, and who comes in
On a workday 3,176 residents head out to work, 298 work right here, and 917 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,700 people are in Charlestown on a workday afternoon, 28% 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 2024, primary jobs.
14% of working residents work in South Kingstown
Where Charlestown clocks in
14% of workers
9% of workers
8% 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.
Time on the road from Charlestown: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Charlestown workers work from home, vs 13% across Rhode Island. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,367 commuters (the 19% who work from home are left out). Across Rhode Island: 83% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far Charlestown’s workers travel
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.
The commute in Charlestown is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Charlestown is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns, #30 of 38 in Rhode Island. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Rhode Island, on an EPA index of 6.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,152 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.2% of Charlestown households have no vehicle (Rhode Island 9.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Charlestown’s commuters take a bus or train.
Charlestown is 980th of 3,015 U.S. towns of 5,600 to 10,800 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 185 | Scituate RI | 10,767 | $112K | 5.0% | 1.0% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 256 | Richmond RI | 8,128 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 509 | Glocester RI | 10,612 | $114K | 4.8% | 3.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 978 | Rootstown Township OH | 8,691 | $89K | 7.0% | 3.7% | 6% | B+ |
| 979 | Lower Windsor Township PA | 7,845 | $87K | 7.0% | 3.3% | 4% | B+ |
| 980 | Charlestown RI | 8,002 | $109K | 4.2% | 4.1% | 9% | B+ |
| 981 | Garrison MD | 9,469 | $102K | 8.0% | 5.3% | 2% | B+ |
| 982 | Braidwood IL | 6,259 | $82K | 7.3% | 2.5% | 5% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,015 | 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 Charlestown, the top three, the last and three more from Rhode Island.
28% of Charlestown works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to South Kingstown (14%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Charlestown workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlestown | – | B+ | B | 28 min | $109,404 |
| Richmond | 5% | A | C+ | 34 min | $124,653 |
| South Kingstown | 14% | B | A | 25 min | $108,960 |
| Hopkinton | under 3% | B | C+ | 26 min | $97,172 |
| Carolina | under 3% | — | — | 55 min | — |
| Westerly | 9% | B+ | B+ | 24 min | $98,875 |
| Bradford | under 3% | — | — | 30 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Carolina and Bradford: Census-designated places inside larger towns, graded as part of them. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Charlestown’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 Charlestown: questions
What is the median household income in Charlestown?
$109,404 (±$9,817) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $87,796 across Rhode Island and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Charlestown?
4.2%, against 11.2% across Rhode Island and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Charlestown?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Rhode Island and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Charlestown work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are South Kingstown (14%, 7 mi), Westerly (9%, 7 mi), Providence (8%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Charlestown walkable?
Charlestown is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Charlestown without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Charlestown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Charlestown
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.