Photo: Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Cottonwood works elsewhere
829 jobs are based in Cottonwood for 1,970 working residents. Cottonwood grades B− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Home is the office for 6% of workers, next to 17% for California as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cottonwood and work: the main findings
40% of Cottonwood works in Redding
796 working residents, 40%, have their main job in Redding, 13 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Cottonwood itself. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Cottonwood are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 54 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Cottonwood earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cottonwood is better than 47% of U.S. towns, #531 of 847 in California. Household income holds Cottonwood’s grade up ($95,577, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (5.9%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cottonwood could be anywhere from C− to A−.
40% of working residents work in Redding
Where Cottonwood clocks in
40% of workers
8% 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.
The trip to work from Cottonwood: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cottonwood workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,373 commuters (the 6% 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.
Cottonwood quiets down on a workday
On a workday 1,823 residents head out to work, 147 work right here, and 682 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,300 people are in Cottonwood on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The kinds of work in Cottonwood
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cottonwood, 2014 → 2024: 715 → 829. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Cottonwood’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Cottonwood works
About 19% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Cottonwood: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cottonwood is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns, #728 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% 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 3,570 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 25% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 25% 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). 3.7% of Cottonwood households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cottonwood’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cottonwood next to U.S. towns of 5,200 to 10,000: 1,866th of 3,083 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Las Flores CA | 5,513 | $212K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | Gold River CA | 7,924 | $175K | 2.9% | 2.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 118 | La Habra Heights CA | 5,327 | $180K | 4.9% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,864 | Seminole TX | 7,730 | $60K | 6.5% | 2.8% | 33% | B− |
| 1,865 | Tanaina AK | 9,646 | $106K | 8.6% | 4.9% | — | B− |
| 1,866 | Cottonwood CA | 7,408 | $96K | 8.7% | 5.9% | 7% | B− |
| 1,867 | Napili-Honokowai HI | 7,308 | $106K | 8.1% | 6.3% | 7% | B− |
| 1,868 | Page AZ | 7,147 | $89K | 10.6% | 3.3% | 55% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,083 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Cottonwood, 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 2024, 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 Cottonwood: questions
What is the median household income in Cottonwood?
$95,577 (±$21,049) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cottonwood?
8.7%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cottonwood?
22 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cottonwood work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Redding (40%, 13 mi), Anderson (8%, 4 mi), Red Bluff (5%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Cottonwood walkable?
Cottonwood is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cottonwood without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 25% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cottonwood, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cottonwood
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.