Garden Acres has higher unemployment (10.3%) than 95% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 5% of workers, next to 17% for California as a whole. Jobs and income earn Garden Acres C; getting around on foot earns it B. Measured by household income, Garden Acres is behind 64% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Garden Acres and work: the main findings
Garden Acres workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 41 minutes each way, against 29 across California. Over a year that’s about 314 hours of commuting, 92 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Garden Acres and Stockton trade workers both ways
Stockton is the top workplace for Garden Acres residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Garden Acres come from (35% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Garden Acres makes and builds things
45% of the jobs based in Garden Acres are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Garden Acres residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 26%. 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.
Garden Acres’ Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Garden Acres is better than 27% of U.S. towns, #668 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Garden Acres’ grade up (ahead of 78% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Garden Acres could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Getting to work from Garden Acres takes about 41 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 13.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Garden Acres workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,128 commuters (the 5% 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.
27% of working residents work in Stockton
Where Garden Acres clocks in
27% of workers
4% 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.
A place that makes things: 45% of Garden Acres’ jobs are in goods
1,664 jobs are based in Garden Acres.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Garden Acres, 2013 → 2023: 1,328 → 1,664. 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 Garden Acres’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Garden Acres, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 3,921 residents head out to work, 116 work right here, and 1,548 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,300 people are in Garden Acres on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer than live here.
0.41 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Short hops and long hauls from Garden Acres
About 26% 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.
Getting around Garden Acres: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Garden Acres is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns, #633 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.6% 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 4,333 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 45% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 72% 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). 3.4% of Garden Acres households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Garden Acres’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,878 U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000, Garden Acres comes 2,285th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Gold River CA | 7,924 | $175K | 2.9% | 2.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 89 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,283 | Wytheville VA | 8,128 | $47K | 21.2% | 2.4% | 35% | C |
| 2,284 | Sodus NY | 8,201 | $70K | 17.1% | 5.4% | 21% | C |
| 2,285 | Garden Acres CA | 10,667 | $66K | 18.9% | 10.3% | 3% | C |
| 2,286 | Dock Junction GA | 8,147 | $41K | 27.0% | 2.3% | 10% | C |
| 2,287 | Spencer IA | 11,218 | $60K | 14.0% | 4.5% | 54% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Garden Acres, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Work next door: 27% of Garden Acres’ workers
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Garden Acres workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden Acres | – | C | B | 41 min | $66,474 |
| Stockton | 27% | C+ | A− | 32 min | $79,907 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Stockton. Darker towns draw more of Garden Acres’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 Garden Acres: questions
What is the median household income in Garden Acres?
$66,474 (±$8,690) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Garden Acres?
18.9%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Garden Acres?
41 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Garden Acres work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stockton (27%, 4 mi), Tracy (4%, 20 mi), Lodi (3%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Garden Acres walkable?
Garden Acres is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 12.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Garden Acres without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 45% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Garden Acres, from the people who make the trip.
More of Garden Acres
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.