Photo: Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0Shepherdstown has 2.4 jobs for every working resident: 1,257 people commute in to work
1,287 jobs are based in Shepherdstown for 546 working residents. Shepherdstown grades B for jobs and income and A for walkability. Home is the office for 20% of workers; West Virginia has 9%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Shepherdstown: the figures worth knowing
Shepherdstown is where the jobs are
Shepherdstown has 1,287 jobs, 2.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,300 people are in town, 49% more than the 1,500 who live here. Day and night ↓
Nearly all the work in Shepherdstown is services
93% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 2% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Shepherdstown are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 27 across West Virginia. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical West Virginia 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 546 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Shepherdstown’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Shepherdstown is better than 57% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Shepherdstown’s grade up (6.2%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($63,750, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (11.9%) is left out: Shepherdstown’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, Shepherdstown could be anywhere from C to A−.
A workday in Shepherdstown: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 516 residents head out to work and 30 work right here.
About 2,300 people are in Shepherdstown on a workday afternoon, 49% 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.
In Shepherdstown, services account for most jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shepherdstown, 2013 → 2023: 1,118 → 1,287. 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 Shepherdstown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 17 minutes from Shepherdstown
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shepherdstown workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 485 commuters (the 20% who work from home are left out). Across West Virginia: 86% 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.
Commuting in to Shepherdstown: where workers come from
Where Shepherdstown clocks in
5% 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.
How far it is to work from Shepherdstown
About 23% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Shepherdstown
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shepherdstown is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 35.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across West Virginia, on an EPA index of 8.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 606 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). 6.7% of Shepherdstown households have no vehicle (West Virginia 8.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Shepherdstown’s commuters take a bus or train.
Shepherdstown next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100: 1,728th of 5,794 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,073 | Barrackville WV | 1,196 | $79K | 4.1% | 3.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,248 | Coal Fork WV | 1,423 | $70K | 2.3% | 29.5% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,352 | Eleanor WV | 1,497 | $79K | 5.9% | 0.6% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,726 | Lake Dunlap TX | 1,411 | $79K | 13.7% | 0.0% | <1% | B |
| 1,727 | Lake Shore MN | 1,127 | $97K | 5.8% | 1.6% | 3% | B |
| 1,728 | Shepherdstown WV | 1,522 | $64K | 6.2% | 11.9% | 5% | B |
| 1,729 | Quarry Township IL | 1,158 | $74K | 5.6% | 3.5% | 11% | B |
| 1,730 | Robb Township IN | 1,748 | $59K | 6.6% | 2.1% | 7% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Shepherdstown, the top three, the last and three more from West Virginia.
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 Shepherdstown: questions
What is the median household income in Shepherdstown?
$63,750 (±$24,257) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shepherdstown?
6.2%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shepherdstown?
17 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shepherdstown work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Martinsburg (5%, 9 mi), Ranson corporation (4%, 10 mi), Charles Town (3%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Shepherdstown walkable?
Shepherdstown is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 35% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shepherdstown without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Shepherdstown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shepherdstown
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.