Photo: AstroDominant · CC BY 4.0Grass Valley draws 7,225 commuters a day, with 1.8 jobs for every working resident
Measured by household income, Grass Valley is behind 86% of U.S. towns. Employers in Grass Valley report 8,583 jobs; 4,845 of its residents have a job. Grass Valley grades D for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Grass Valley and work: the main findings
Commutes from Grass Valley are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 92 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker. Time on the road ↓
Grass Valley is where the jobs are
Grass Valley has 8,583 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Grass Valley draws workers from far and wide
The 8,583 jobs in Grass Valley are filled from a wide area. Grass Valley’s own residents hold 16% and the ten next-biggest home towns 18%; the other 66% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
Why Grass Valley gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Grass Valley is better than 10% of U.S. towns, #786 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Grass Valley’s grade up (ahead of 38% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (22.1%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Grass Valley could be anywhere from D to C.
About 17 minutes each way for Grass Valley’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Grass Valley workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,539 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 workday shuffle in and out of Grass Valley
On a workday 3,487 residents head out to work and 1,358 work right here.
About 18,000 people are in Grass Valley on a workday afternoon, 27% more 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.
Where the people who work in Grass Valley live
Where Grass Valley clocks in
9% 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.
The kinds of work in Grass Valley
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Grass Valley, 2013 → 2023: 9,324 → 8,583. 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 Grass Valley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Grass Valley, by distance
About 31% 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.
Grass Valley is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Grass Valley is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns, #166 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 5.5% 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 5,354 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 92% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 48% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 62% 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). 12.7% of Grass Valley households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Grass Valley’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000, and where Grass Valley sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 71 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Alamo CA | 14,488 | $250K | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,135 | El Dorado AR | 16,609 | $49K | 23.3% | 7.0% | 49% | D |
| 2,136 | La Homa TX | 11,285 | $37K | 37.4% | 13.8% | 1% | D |
| 2,137 | Grass Valley CA | 14,035 | $52K | 22.1% | 7.4% | 28% | D |
| 2,138 | Big Bear City CA | 11,431 | $72K | 16.1% | 9.8% | 7% | D |
| 2,139 | Sebring FL | 12,059 | $44K | 24.1% | 5.9% | 20% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Grass Valley, 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 Grass Valley: questions
What is the median household income in Grass Valley?
$51,764 (±$6,128) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Grass Valley?
22.1%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Grass Valley?
17 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Grass Valley work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nevada City (9%, 3 mi), Sacramento (4%, 50 mi), San Francisco (3%, 124 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Grass Valley walkable?
Grass Valley is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 13.9 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Grass Valley without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. 48% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Grass Valley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Grass Valley
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.