Photo: AnonymousEditor95 · CC BY-SA 4.0Covelo has lower household incomes than 98% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Covelo itself; outside it, Ukiah draws the most (3%, 45 miles). 36.5% of residents are in poverty; California has 12.0%. Jobs and income earn Covelo 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
Getting to work from Covelo, in brief
Commutes from Covelo are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 100 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. 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; with 291 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Covelo’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Covelo is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Covelo’s grade.
Unemployment (22.4%) is left out: Covelo’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Covelo stays D−.
How long Covelo spends getting to work: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Covelo workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 337 commuters (the 16% 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 commute from Covelo, by distance
About 34% 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.
A workday in Covelo: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 211 residents head out to work, 80 work right here, and 176 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.
Where Covelo goes to work
Where Covelo clocks in
3% 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.
In Covelo, services account for most jobs
256 jobs are based in Covelo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Covelo, 2013 → 2023: 206 → 256. 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 Covelo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Covelo is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Covelo is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 402 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). 14.4% of Covelo households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Covelo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Covelo next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Castle Hill CA | 1,026 | $250K | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 16 | Acalanes Ridge CA | 1,006 | $181K | 1.5% | 7.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,853 | Meadview AZ | 1,517 | $26K | 33.2% | 22.0% | 4% | D− |
| 4,854 | Redway CA | 1,145 | $24K | 36.7% | 14.9% | 15% | D− |
| 4,855 | Covelo CA | 1,286 | $35K | 36.5% | 22.4% | 27% | D− |
| 4,856 | Towaoc CO | 1,078 | $23K | 62.0% | 13.1% | 29% | D− |
| 4,857 | Leilani Estates HI | 1,490 | $30K | 29.0% | 21.5% | 0% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Covelo, 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 Covelo: questions
What is the median household income in Covelo?
$34,583 (±$23,676) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Covelo?
36.5%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Covelo?
16 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Covelo work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ukiah (3%, 45 mi), San Francisco (2%, 147 mi), Sacramento (2%, 128 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Covelo walkable?
Covelo is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Covelo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Covelo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Covelo
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.