Photo: Jonmallard · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Anderson earn less than those in 91% of U.S. towns
For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 1.3 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 17.5 in Los Angeles. The poverty rate is 21.2%, against 12.0% across California. Anderson grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Anderson in brief
Anderson trades workers with the towns around it
Anderson has about as many jobs (3,909) as working residents (3,884), but they are mostly different people: 3,367 residents leave for work each day while 3,392 people come in. Only 13% of the jobs in Anderson are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Anderson and Redding trade workers both ways
Redding is the top workplace for Anderson residents (43%) and also where the most people who work in Anderson come from (28% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Anderson are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical California 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.
Inside Anderson’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Anderson is better than 11% of U.S. towns, #771 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Anderson’s grade up (ahead of 47% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($47,375, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Anderson could be anywhere from D to C.
The workday shuffle in and out of Anderson
On a workday 3,367 residents head out to work, 517 work right here, and 3,392 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.01 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
43% of working residents work in Redding
Where Anderson clocks in
43% of workers
2% 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 20 minutes each way, quicker than most of California
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Anderson workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,716 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across California: 79% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The kinds of work in Anderson
3,909 jobs are based in Anderson.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Anderson, 2013 → 2023: 2,911 → 3,909. 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 Anderson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Anderson goes to work
About 20% 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.
Anderson is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Anderson is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns, #422 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 7.1% across California.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,200 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 82% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 24% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 61% 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). 8.5% of Anderson households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Anderson’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000, and where Anderson sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 126 | Alamo CA | 14,488 | $250K | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,341 | Smithfield NC | 13,114 | $43K | 27.3% | 7.2% | 17% | D |
| 2,342 | Fort Riley KS | 8,606 | $54K | 10.7% | 18.6% | 2% | D |
| 2,343 | Anderson CA | 11,131 | $47K | 21.2% | 7.5% | 13% | D |
| 2,344 | Vidalia GA | 10,885 | $49K | 25.7% | 5.4% | 39% | D |
| 2,345 | Maysville KY | 8,688 | $39K | 24.3% | 4.4% | 43% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Anderson, the top three, the last and three more from California.
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 Anderson: questions
What is the median household income in Anderson?
$47,375 (±$6,676) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Anderson?
21.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Anderson?
20 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Anderson work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Redding (43%, 9 mi), Red Bluff (3%, 19 mi), Chico (2%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Anderson walkable?
Anderson is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 12.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Anderson without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 24% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Anderson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Anderson
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.