Photo: U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Julius Delos Reyes · Public domainEdwards AFB has 2.1 jobs for every working resident: 703 people commute in to work
Home is the office for 4% of workers, where California as a whole has 17%. 722 jobs are based in Edwards AFB for 348 working residents. For jobs and income Edwards AFB is better than 30% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (C+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Edwards AFB apart
A big share show a job far from home
75% 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 ↓
Edwards AFB’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Edwards AFB is Los Angeles, 67 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (31) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Edwards AFB is where the jobs are
Edwards AFB has 722 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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 348 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Edwards AFB: the grade in detail
The poverty rate holds Edwards AFB’s grade up (7.8%, U.S. 11.9%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns).
13% of Edwards AFB’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (16% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 7.8%, against 9.5% for all residents. Unemployment (16.1%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($80,742), since student households pull the household median down ($91,250).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Edwards AFB could be anywhere from D to B.
The distance from Edwards AFB to work
About 75% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Edwards AFB
On a workday 329 residents head out to work and 19 work right here.
About 2,900 people are in Edwards AFB on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
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 daily trip into Edwards AFB
Where Edwards AFB clocks in
8% of workers
6% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Edwards AFB
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Edwards AFB, 2013 → 2023: 702 → 722. 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 Edwards AFB’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Edwards AFB, about 11 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Edwards AFB workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,035 commuters (the 4% 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.
In Edwards AFB, most people drive to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,079 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 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 53% 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). 0.0% of Edwards AFB households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Edwards AFB’s commuters take a bus or train.
Edwards AFB is 3,192nd of 4,868 U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,400 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Harmony Grove CA | 2,585 | $227K | 4.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 77 | Ross CA | 2,304 | $250K | 4.8% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Fairbanks Ranch CA | 2,703 | $250K | 5.5% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,190 | Lawrence Township MI | 3,294 | $64K | 19.5% | 4.0% | 11% | C |
| 3,191 | Jackson Township OH | 2,018 | $62K | 10.3% | 5.0% | 8% | C |
| 3,192 | Edwards AFB CA | 2,500 | $91K | 9.5% | 16.1% | 5% | C |
| 3,193 | Bellevue ID | 2,597 | $73K | 9.3% | 5.2% | 7% | C |
| 3,194 | New Tazewell TN | 2,846 | $54K | 12.5% | 3.2% | 10% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,868 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Edwards AFB, 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.
- Students. 13% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Edwards AFB: questions
What is the median household income in Edwards AFB?
$91,250 (±$26,775) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Edwards AFB?
9.5% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 7.8%. California: 12.0%.
How long is the commute from Edwards AFB?
11 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Edwards AFB work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Los Angeles (9%, 67 mi), Bakersfield (8%, 70 mi), Lancaster (6%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Edwards AFB walkable?
Edwards AFB is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Edwards AFB without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Edwards AFB, from the people who make the trip.
More of Edwards AFB
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.