Photo: CVB · CC BY-SA 4.0Glen Ellen’s household incomes are higher than in 98% of U.S. towns
For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 0.3 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 1.0 in Santa Rosa. Below the poverty line: 26.0% of residents, where California as a whole has 12.0%. Jobs and income earn Glen Ellen B−; getting around on foot earns it A+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Glen Ellen: the figures worth knowing
Glen Ellen and Santa Rosa trade workers both ways
Santa Rosa is the top workplace for Glen Ellen residents (18%) and also where the most people who work in Glen Ellen come from (21% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Glen Ellen are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 115 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Glen Ellen than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Glen Ellen fell from 506 in 2013 to 237 in 2023, −53%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. 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; with 226 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Glen Ellen’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Glen Ellen is better than 53% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Glen Ellen’s grade up ($202,097, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (4.1%) is left out: Glen Ellen’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, Glen Ellen could be anywhere from D to A.
18% of working residents work in Santa Rosa
Where Glen Ellen clocks in
18% 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.
About 14 minutes to work from Glen Ellen
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Glen Ellen workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 468 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.
Goods jobs make up 35% of work in Glen Ellen
237 jobs are based in Glen Ellen.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Glen Ellen, 2013 → 2023: 506 → 237. 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 Glen Ellen’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Glen Ellen on a workday afternoon
On a workday 216 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 227 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.05 per resident).
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 far it is to work from Glen Ellen
About 22% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Glen Ellen
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Glen Ellen is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Glen Ellen near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 538 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, 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). 10.6% of Glen Ellen households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Glen Ellen’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Glen Ellen comes 1,143rd 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Castle Hill CA | 1,026 | $250K | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 15 | Acalanes Ridge CA | 1,006 | $181K | 1.5% | 7.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,141 | South Homer Township IL | 1,446 | $84K | 9.1% | 3.0% | 4% | B− |
| 1,142 | Worthington MA | 1,166 | $92K | 4.5% | 3.6% | 4% | B− |
| 1,143 | Glen Ellen CA | 1,078 | $202K | 26.0% | 4.1% | 4% | B− |
| 1,144 | Dortches NC | 1,103 | $75K | 9.4% | 1.5% | <1% | B− |
| 1,145 | Elizabethville PA | 1,347 | $69K | 5.4% | 0.6% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Glen Ellen, 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 Glen Ellen: questions
What is the median household income in Glen Ellen?
$202,097 (±$167,474) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Glen Ellen?
26.0%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Glen Ellen?
14 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Glen Ellen work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Rosa (18%, 11 mi), San Francisco (9%, 41 mi), Petaluma (4%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Glen Ellen walkable?
Glen Ellen is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 12.2 out of 20, and 14% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Glen Ellen without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Glen Ellen, from the people who make the trip.
More of Glen Ellen
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.