North Calais Village Historic District · Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Calais commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
Employers in Calais report 99 jobs, against 538 working residents. Jobs and income earn Calais B−; getting around on foot earns it D−. Measured by household income, Calais is ahead of 77% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Calais: the figures worth knowing
Calais is a place people come home to
There are 99 jobs based in Calais, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Calais has about 1,200 people in it, 26% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Calais workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 31 minutes each way, against 24 across Vermont. Over a year that’s about 238 hours of commuting, 54 more than the state’s typical 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; with 538 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Calais’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Calais is better than 48% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Calais’ grade up ($100,625, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 12% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Calais’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, Calais could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The workday shuffle in and out of Calais
On a workday 511 residents head out to work, 27 work right here, and 72 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Calais on a workday afternoon, 26% 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 daily trip from Calais: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Calais workers work from home, vs 17% across Vermont. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 608 commuters (the 23% who work from home are left out). Across Vermont: 82% 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.
18% of working residents work in Montpelier
Where Calais clocks in
18% of workers
10% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 40% of the jobs in Calais
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Calais, 2013 → 2023: 101 → 99. 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 Calais’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Calais
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.
In Calais, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Calais is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Calais near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 794 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 0.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 43% 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). 0.9% of Calais households have no vehicle (Vermont 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Calais’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200, Calais comes 2,141st on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 615 | South Hero VT | 1,726 | $127K | 3.5% | 5.9% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 676 | Dummerston VT | 1,859 | $102K | 4.5% | 1.6% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 692 | Bolton VT | 1,277 | $111K | 2.9% | 1.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,139 | Junction Township KS | 1,230 | $77K | 4.5% | 1.1% | 4% | B− |
| 2,140 | Brown Township OH | 1,879 | $74K | 10.4% | 2.5% | 5% | B− |
| 2,141 | Calais VT | 1,661 | $101K | 8.8% | 0.8% | 5% | B− |
| 2,142 | Parks AZ | 1,706 | $78K | 5.5% | 1.0% | 3% | B− |
| 2,143 | Sutton NE | 1,466 | $81K | 5.8% | 1.3% | 23% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Calais, the top three, the last and three more from Vermont.
Bordering towns draw 10% of Calais’ workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Calais workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calais | – | B− | D− | 31 min | $100,625 |
| East Montpelier | 10% | A− | B+ | 20 min | $92,778 |
| Worcester | under 3% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Marshfield | under 3% | C− | C+ | 29 min | $60,313 |
| Woodbury | under 3% | — | — | 34 min | — |
| Elmore | under 3% | — | — | 29 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Worcester, Woodbury and Elmore: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to East Montpelier. Darker towns draw more of Calais’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 Calais: questions
What is the median household income in Calais?
$100,625 (±$27,461) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $81,203 across Vermont and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Calais?
8.8%, against 10.1% across Vermont and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Calais?
31 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Vermont and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Calais work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Montpelier (18%, 8 mi), East Montpelier (10%, 5 mi), Barre (6%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Calais walkable?
Calais is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Calais without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Calais, from the people who make the trip.
More of Calais
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.