Photo: Hunter Trick (TrickHunter) · CC BY-SA 4.0Tempe draws 212,459 commuters a day, with 2.9 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Tempe A−; getting around on foot earns it A+. Tempe has 232,117 jobs, against 79,858 working residents. About one in four stay in Tempe for work; outside it, Phoenix is the main destination (34%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Tempe apart on work
Much of Tempe works one town over
59% of working residents work in a town that borders Tempe: Phoenix (34%), Chandler (9%) and Scottsdale (9%). Next door ↓
Tempe is where the jobs are
Tempe has 232,117 jobs, 2.9 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 343,000 people are in town, 80% more than the 191,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
A young workforce
32% of Tempe’s working residents are 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Most Tempe residents work close to home
61% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. Only 5% work more than 50 miles away. How far ↓
The biggest group of Tempe’s workers comes from Phoenix
62,601 of the people who work in Tempe live in Phoenix, 16 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Tempe
On family income, poverty and job access, Tempe is better than 80% of U.S. towns, #17 of 140 in Arizona. Job access by car holds Tempe’s grade up (ahead of 96% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (10.3%, U.S. 11.9%). It also does well on family income.
20% of Tempe’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (17% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 10.3%, against 15.8% for all residents. Unemployment (5.5%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($105,733), since student households pull the household median down ($79,663).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Tempe could be anywhere from B+ to A.
The daily commute in and out of Tempe
On a workday 60,200 residents head out to work and 19,658 work right here.
About 343,000 people are in Tempe on a workday afternoon, 80% 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.
70% of the jobs in Tempe pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tempe, 2013 → 2023: 174,203 → 232,117. 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 Tempe’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Tempe commutes less than 8 miles
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.
The daily trip into Tempe
Where Tempe clocks in
34% of workers
9% of workers
9% 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.
About 21 minutes each way for Tempe’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tempe workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 86,248 commuters (the 21% who work from home are left out). Across Arizona: 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.
Tempe is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 109,402 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 99% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 47% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 17.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 97% 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). 7.7% of Tempe households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Tempe’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Tempe places 24th of 150 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 133,000 to 257,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| 3 | Olathe KS | 150,025 | $114K | 5.6% | 2.7% | 26% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Scottsdale AZ | 243,006 | $111K | 7.3% | 3.6% | 28% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Maine Township IL | 136,611 | $98K | 6.7% | 5.1% | 13% | A− |
| 23 | Thornton CO | 147,766 | $103K | 7.0% | 4.5% | 10% | A− |
| 24 | Tempe AZ | 190,571 | $80K | 15.8% | 5.5% | 25% | A− |
| 25 | Roseville CA | 167,302 | $119K | 5.9% | 5.2% | 22% | A− |
| 26 | Orange CA | 138,365 | $117K | 9.5% | 4.9% | 13% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Peoria AZ | 200,881 | $96K | 8.4% | 4.0% | 8% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Surprise AZ | 175,304 | $97K | 8.6% | 4.3% | 10% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 150 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Tempe, the top three, the last and three more from Arizona.
Bordering towns draw 59% of Tempe’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Tempe workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tempe | – | A− | A+ | 21 min | $79,663 |
| Phoenix | 34% | B | A | 26 min | $81,332 |
| Chandler | 9% | A− | B+ | 24 min | $108,095 |
| Mesa | 7% | B+ | A− | 25 min | $82,752 |
| Guadalupe | under 1% | C+ | A− | 19 min | $51,354 |
| Scottsdale | 9% | A | A− | 22 min | $110,886 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Phoenix. Darker towns draw more of Tempe’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.
- Students. 20% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Tempe: questions
What is the median household income in Tempe?
$79,663 (±$2,503) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tempe?
15.8% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 10.3%. Arizona: 12.5%.
How long is the commute from Tempe?
21 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tempe work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Phoenix (34%, 16 mi), Scottsdale (9%, 21 mi), Chandler (9%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tempe walkable?
Tempe is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.2 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tempe without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 47% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tempe, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tempe
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.