USCGC STORIS (cutter) · Photo: United States Coast Guard, PA1 Kurt Fredrickson · Public domainHouseholds in Benicia earn more than those in 89% of U.S. towns
7.6% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 12.0% for California as a whole. Benicia grades B+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 0.5 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 3.2 in Vallejo.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Benicia, in a few figures
Benicia trades workers with the towns around it
Benicia has about as many jobs (13,000) as working residents (11,687), but they are mostly different people: 10,025 residents leave for work each day while 11,338 people come in. Only 13% of the jobs in Benicia are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Benicia makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Benicia are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Benicia residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 15%. The jobs ↓
Benicia’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Benicia is San Francisco, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 8% of working residents (959) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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 Benicia earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Benicia is better than 74% of U.S. towns, #239 of 847 in California. Household income holds Benicia’s grade up ($121,204, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (4.5%, 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, Benicia could be anywhere from B to A.
In and out of Benicia on a workday
On a workday 10,025 residents head out to work, 1,662 work right here, and 11,338 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 (1.11 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.
In Benicia, 38% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
13,000 jobs are based in Benicia.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Benicia, 2013 → 2023: 11,200 → 13,000. 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 Benicia’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Benicia
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.
8% of working residents work in San Francisco
Where Benicia clocks in
7% of workers
5% 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.
Commuting from Benicia: about 29 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Benicia workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 9,588 commuters (the 23% 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.
Benicia 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, Benicia is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #365 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.4% 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 12,463 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 87% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 33% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 50% 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). 3.0% of Benicia households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Benicia’s commuters take a bus or train.
Benicia places 699th of 1,645 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 18,000 to 36,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 107 | Manhattan Beach CA | 33,122 | $204K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 125 | Saratoga CA | 30,418 | $250K | 3.3% | 4.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 697 | Etna Township OH | 20,136 | $103K | 8.9% | 4.5% | 8% | B+ |
| 698 | Westerly RI | 23,139 | $99K | 5.2% | 4.1% | 30% | B+ |
| 699 | Benicia CA | 26,401 | $121K | 7.6% | 4.5% | 14% | B+ |
| 700 | College Park MD | 35,418 | $70K | 33.2% | 7.1% | 8% | B+ |
| 701 | Middleborough MA | 25,149 | $97K | 6.2% | 4.7% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,645 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Benicia, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Benicia and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Vallejo (7%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Benicia’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 Benicia: questions
What is the median household income in Benicia?
$121,204 (±$7,026) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Benicia?
7.6%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Benicia?
29 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Benicia work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Francisco (8%, 25 mi), Vallejo (7%, 6 mi), Walnut Creek (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Benicia walkable?
Benicia is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Benicia without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 33% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Benicia, from the people who make the trip.
More of Benicia
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.