Most of Forest Meadows commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
Hardly any work in Forest Meadows; the top destination outside it is Arnold (9%, 6 miles). 89 jobs are based in Forest Meadows, and 464 of its residents work somewhere. Forest Meadows grades C for jobs and income and C+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Forest Meadows: the figures worth knowing
A big share show a job far from home
61% 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 ↓
Forest Meadows is a place people come home to
There are 89 jobs based in Forest Meadows, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Forest Meadows are quick
The average trip to work takes 24 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 38 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 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 464 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Forest Meadows’ grade
On income, poverty and job access, Forest Meadows is better than 32% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Forest Meadows’ grade up ($89,044, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.7%) is left out: Forest Meadows’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Forest Meadows could be anywhere from D to B+.
Where in the region Forest Meadows works
About 61% 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.
Who commutes out of Forest Meadows, and who commutes in
On a workday 460 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 85 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Forest Meadows 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.
From Forest Meadows, about 24 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forest Meadows workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 489 commuters (the 15% 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 towns that employ Forest Meadows’ residents
Where Forest Meadows clocks in
6% 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.
What Forest Meadows’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forest Meadows, 2013 → 2023: 53 → 89. 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 Forest Meadows’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most of Forest Meadows commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Forest Meadows is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 5.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 578 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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 Forest Meadows households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Forest Meadows’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200, Forest Meadows comes 3,463rd on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Baywood Park CA | 1,580 | $217K | 2.8% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 76 | Irwindale CA | 1,439 | $114K | 4.3% | 6.5% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,461 | Franklin Township OH | 1,661 | $79K | 19.5% | 6.7% | 1% | C |
| 3,462 | Rice Township OH | 1,237 | $72K | 17.0% | 4.4% | 1% | C |
| 3,463 | Forest Meadows CA | 1,623 | $89K | 11.0% | 1.7% | 1% | C |
| 3,464 | Las Maravillas NM | 1,594 | $63K | 9.7% | 3.4% | <1% | C |
| 3,465 | Ponderosa Pine NM | 1,442 | $87K | 11.4% | 4.9% | <1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Forest Meadows, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Forest Meadows and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Forest Meadows workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Meadows | – | C | C+ | 24 min | $89,044 |
| Hathaway Pines | under 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Hathaway Pines: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Forest Meadows’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 Forest Meadows: questions
What is the median household income in Forest Meadows?
$89,044 (±$25,406) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forest Meadows?
11.0%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forest Meadows?
24 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forest Meadows work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Arnold (9%, 6 mi), Murphys (6%, 4 mi), Fresno (3%, 102 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Forest Meadows walkable?
Forest Meadows is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Forest Meadows 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 Forest Meadows, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forest Meadows
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.