Fair Oaks Bridge, Old, · Photo: LPS.1 · CC BY-SA 3.0Fair Oaks has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
5,931 jobs are based in Fair Oaks; 13,427 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Fair Oaks B+; getting around on foot earns it A−. Measured by household income, Fair Oaks is ahead of 87% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Fair Oaks at work: what stands out
Fair Oaks and Sacramento trade workers both ways
Sacramento is the top workplace for Fair Oaks residents (20%) and also where the most people who work in Fair Oaks come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Fair Oaks
71% of Fair Oaks residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 51% of the jobs based in Fair Oaks pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 96% leave town for their job. 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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Fair Oaks
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Fair Oaks is better than 74% of U.S. towns, #242 of 847 in California. Household income holds Fair Oaks’ grade up ($116,975, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (6.1%, 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, Fair Oaks could be anywhere from B+ to A.
20% of working residents work in Sacramento
Where Fair Oaks clocks in
20% of workers
7% 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.
What Fair Oaks’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fair Oaks, 2013 → 2023: 5,180 → 5,931. 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 Fair Oaks’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Fair Oaks, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 12,871 residents head out to work, 556 work right here, and 5,375 people come in from elsewhere.
About 25,000 people are in Fair Oaks on a workday afternoon, 23% 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 2023, primary jobs.
How long Fair Oaks spends getting to work: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fair Oaks workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,585 commuters (the 24% 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.
Half of Fair Oaks commutes less than 12 miles
About 23% 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.
In Fair Oaks, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fair Oaks is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns, #397 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 15,188 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 61% 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 1.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 63% 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). 3.1% of Fair Oaks households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Fair Oaks’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,283 U.S. towns of 23,000 to 44,000, Fair Oaks comes 553rd on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 87 | Manhattan Beach CA | 33,122 | $204K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 98 | Saratoga CA | 30,418 | $250K | 3.3% | 4.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 118 | Lafayette CA | 25,313 | $228K | 2.9% | 4.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 551 | East Haven CT | 27,925 | $95K | 7.2% | 4.9% | 8% | B+ |
| 552 | Sherwood AR | 33,620 | $81K | 9.0% | 2.9% | 8% | B+ |
| 553 | Fair Oaks CA | 32,799 | $117K | 7.2% | 6.1% | 4% | B+ |
| 554 | Cliffside Park NJ | 26,539 | $93K | 10.8% | 4.4% | 5% | B+ |
| 555 | Lakewood Ranch FL | 43,945 | $123K | 7.4% | 3.7% | 11% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,283 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Fair Oaks, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Next door is work for 19% of Fair Oaks
The biggest share goes to Rancho Cordova (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Fair Oaks workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair Oaks | – | B+ | A− | 30 min | $116,975 |
| Orangevale | under 2% | B+ | B | 28 min | $99,832 |
| Rancho Cordova | 7% | B− | A | 27 min | $89,585 |
| Gold River | under 2% | A+ | A | 23 min | $175,120 |
| Carmichael | 4% | B− | A | 27 min | $85,914 |
| Citrus Heights | 2% | B | A | 28 min | $82,314 |
| Folsom | 6% | A− | A | 27 min | $139,804 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Fair Oaks’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 Fair Oaks: questions
What is the median household income in Fair Oaks?
$116,975 (±$6,646) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fair Oaks?
7.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fair Oaks?
30 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fair Oaks work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sacramento (20%, 13 mi), Roseville (7%, 9 mi), Rancho Cordova (7%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fair Oaks walkable?
Fair Oaks is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fair Oaks without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fair Oaks, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fair Oaks
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.