Photo: Sanfranman59 · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Gilroy are higher than in 92% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 6.7% of residents, next to 12.0% for California as a whole. Jobs and income earn Gilroy B+; getting around on foot earns it A−. Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 3.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 7.6 in San Jose.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Gilroy in brief
Why Gilroy gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Gilroy is better than 69% of U.S. towns, #309 of 847 in California. Household income holds Gilroy’s grade up ($133,107, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (6.3%, 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, Gilroy could be anywhere from B to A−.
Short hops and long hauls from Gilroy
About 20% 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.
Gilroy by day and by night
On a workday 22,163 residents head out to work, 4,028 work right here, and 12,056 people come in from elsewhere.
About 51,000 people are in Gilroy on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer than live here.
0.61 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.
24% of working residents work in San Jose
Where Gilroy clocks in
24% of workers
6% of workers
4% 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 the 16,084 jobs in Gilroy are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gilroy, 2013 → 2023: 14,212 → 16,084. 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 Gilroy’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Gilroy spends getting to work: about 33 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gilroy workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 23,667 commuters (the 13% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Gilroy
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gilroy is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #376 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.2% 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 27,131 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 75% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 29% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 78% 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). 4.5% of Gilroy households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Gilroy’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 712 U.S. towns of 43,000 to 82,000, Gilroy comes 349th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Cupertino CA | 58,333 | $235K | 4.1% | 4.0% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 41 | South San Francisco CA | 64,941 | $137K | 6.7% | 2.8% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Dublin CA | 71,602 | $214K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 347 | Spring TX | 68,580 | $89K | 10.4% | 4.8% | 1% | B+ |
| 348 | Casas Adobes AZ | 72,059 | $84K | 6.6% | 4.3% | 8% | B+ |
| 349 | Gilroy CA | 60,764 | $133K | 6.7% | 6.3% | 15% | B+ |
| 350 | Tonawanda NY | 70,853 | $78K | 9.8% | 3.7% | 15% | B+ |
| 351 | Iowa City IA | 76,229 | $59K | 26.3% | 4.6% | 57% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 712 | 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 Gilroy, 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 Gilroy: questions
What is the median household income in Gilroy?
$133,107 (±$9,176) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gilroy?
6.7%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gilroy?
33 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gilroy work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Jose (24%, 24 mi), Morgan Hill (6%, 9 mi), Santa Clara (4%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gilroy walkable?
Gilroy is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 12.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gilroy without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 29% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gilroy, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gilroy
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.