Photo: Jey0h · CC BY 3.0Household incomes in Buttonwillow trail those of 98% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers (California 17%). The poverty rate is 25.1%, where California as a whole has 12.0%. Jobs and income earn Buttonwillow D; getting around on foot earns it B.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Buttonwillow at work: what stands out
Buttonwillow and Bakersfield trade workers both ways
Bakersfield is the top workplace for Buttonwillow residents (22%) and also where the most people who work in Buttonwillow come from (33% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Few Buttonwillow workers work from home
Only 0% of workers work from home, against 17% across California. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
43% of the jobs in Buttonwillow are in trade, transport and utilities, against 23% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
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 436 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Buttonwillow
On income, poverty and job access, Buttonwillow is better than 7% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Buttonwillow’s grade up (ahead of 38% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($35,086, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (4.0%) is left out: Buttonwillow’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Buttonwillow could be anywhere from D to C−.
22% of working residents work in Bakersfield
Where Buttonwillow clocks in
22% of workers
10% 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.
Time on the road from Buttonwillow: about 33 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Buttonwillow workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 388 commuters (the 0% 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.
Jobs in Buttonwillow: what the 384 are
384 jobs are based in Buttonwillow.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Buttonwillow, 2013 → 2023: 394 → 384. 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 Buttonwillow’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Buttonwillow by day
On a workday 430 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 378 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 (0.88 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.
The commute from Buttonwillow, by distance
About 28% 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.
Driving is how Buttonwillow gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Buttonwillow is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 388 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 12.2% of Buttonwillow households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Buttonwillow’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Buttonwillow is 3,760th among 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Castle Hill CA | 1,026 | $250K | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 15 | Acalanes Ridge CA | 1,006 | $181K | 1.5% | 7.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,758 | Milbridge ME | 1,316 | $61K | 18.4% | 10.2% | 16% | D |
| 3,759 | Monroe Township PA | 1,090 | $57K | 17.5% | 3.8% | 1% | D |
| 3,760 | Buttonwillow CA | 1,163 | $35K | 25.1% | 4.0% | 1% | D |
| 3,761 | Plummer ID | 1,130 | $54K | 15.0% | 5.4% | 15% | D |
| 3,762 | Capitan NM | 1,402 | $53K | 14.4% | 6.5% | 10% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Buttonwillow, 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 Buttonwillow: questions
What is the median household income in Buttonwillow?
$35,086 (±$8,593) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Buttonwillow?
25.1%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Buttonwillow?
33 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Buttonwillow work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bakersfield (22%, 23 mi), Shafter (10%, 14 mi), Wasco (3%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Buttonwillow walkable?
Buttonwillow is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Buttonwillow without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Buttonwillow, from the people who make the trip.
More of Buttonwillow
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.