Photo: Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0More people are out of work in Gridley (11.5%) than in 97% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Gridley is behind 77% of U.S. towns. Gridley grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. At home: 3% of workers have no commute at all (California 17%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Gridley and work: the main findings
Jobs & income in Gridley: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Gridley is better than 10% of U.S. towns, #786 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Gridley’s grade up (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gridley could be anywhere from D to C.
Getting to work from Gridley takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gridley workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,569 commuters (the 3% 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 daily flow of workers through Gridley
On a workday 2,138 residents head out to work, 429 work right here, and 1,413 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,500 people are in Gridley on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.72 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.
10% of working residents work in Oroville
Where Gridley clocks in
10% of workers
9% of workers
9% 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 Gridley’s employers do
1,842 jobs are based in Gridley.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gridley, 2013 → 2023: 2,016 → 1,842. 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 Gridley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Gridley works
About 23% 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.
Gridley is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gridley is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns, #391 of 847 in California. Both inputs place Gridley 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 2,646 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 7.2% of Gridley households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Gridley’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 5,100 to 9,800, and where Gridley sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 63 | Las Flores CA | 5,513 | $212K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Gold River CA | 7,924 | $175K | 2.9% | 2.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 115 | La Habra Heights CA | 5,327 | $180K | 4.9% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,917 | Springfield Township IL | 5,485 | $40K | 31.3% | 15.1% | 4% | D |
| 2,918 | Fort Bragg CA | 6,946 | $56K | 18.2% | 6.3% | 45% | D |
| 2,919 | Gridley CA | 7,258 | $58K | 17.9% | 11.5% | 17% | D |
| 2,920 | Waynesboro GA | 5,511 | $42K | 26.0% | 6.1% | 28% | D |
| 2,921 | Dowagiac MI | 5,725 | $48K | 21.4% | 8.9% | 13% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,122 | 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 Gridley, 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 Gridley: questions
What is the median household income in Gridley?
$57,974 (±$10,136) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gridley?
17.9%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gridley?
25 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gridley work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oroville (10%, 12 mi), Yuba City (9%, 16 mi), Chico (9%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gridley walkable?
Gridley is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gridley without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gridley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gridley
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.