Photo: Prg · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Aptos earn more than those in 92% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 5.9% (California 12.0%). Jobs and income earn Aptos B+; getting around on foot earns it A. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 3.0 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 17.5 in Los Angeles.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Aptos stands out on work
Jobs & income in Aptos: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Aptos is better than 72% of U.S. towns, #271 of 847 in California. Household income holds Aptos’ grade up ($134,048, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (5.4%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Aptos could be anywhere from B to A.
Who leaves Aptos for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,319 residents head out to work, 194 work right here, and 2,685 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 (1.15 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.
14% of working residents work in Santa Cruz
Where Aptos clocks in
14% of workers
7% 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.
What Aptos’ employers do
2,879 jobs are based in Aptos.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Aptos, 2013 → 2023: 3,095 → 2,879. 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 Aptos’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Aptos: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Aptos workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,368 commuters (the 19% 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.
How far Aptos’ workers travel
About 21% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Aptos
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,906 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 53% 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 3.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 75% 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). 3.9% of Aptos households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Aptos’ commuters take a bus or train.
Aptos next to U.S. towns of 4,500 to 8,600: 1,066th of 3,255 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 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Las Flores CA | 5,513 | $212K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Broadmoor CA | 4,586 | $167K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Gold River CA | 7,924 | $175K | 2.9% | 2.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,064 | Reed Township IL | 6,988 | $82K | 7.7% | 2.8% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,065 | West Brandywine Township PA | 8,131 | $113K | 7.8% | 5.5% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,066 | Aptos CA | 6,404 | $134K | 5.9% | 5.4% | 8% | B+ |
| 1,067 | Chisago City MN | 5,955 | $102K | 3.4% | 7.5% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,068 | Forest Hills PA | 6,116 | $90K | 4.3% | 7.5% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,255 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Aptos, the top three, the last and three more from California.
How Aptos compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Soquel (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Aptos workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aptos | – | B+ | A | 25 min | $134,048 |
| Day Valley | under 2% | B+ | B− | 29 min | $155,000 |
| Soquel | 3% | B | A | 23 min | $118,777 |
| Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley | under 2% | A | C | 28 min | $158,788 |
| Rio del Mar | 2% | A− | B+ | 30 min | $159,929 |
| Seacliff | under 2% | A− | A− | 24 min | $130,385 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Aptos’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 Aptos: questions
What is the median household income in Aptos?
$134,048 (±$16,517) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Aptos?
5.9%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Aptos?
25 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Aptos work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Cruz (14%, 8 mi), Watsonville (7%, 8 mi), Live Oak (6%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Aptos walkable?
Aptos is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.7 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Aptos without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 24% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Aptos, from the people who make the trip.
More of Aptos
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.